5 Best Quotes By Herman Melville The Creator Of Moby Dick

Regarded as one of the finest writers to ever come into being by those versed in the lore of American Literature, Herman Melville crashed down upon the beaches of literary endeavour in 1846 with one of his most acclaimed novels "Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life" -- a fictional, highly romanticized account of the author's voyage to the South Pacific Marquesas Islands. Building off this immediate success, Melville's literary yearnings once again returned to seafaring a decade and a half later with the publishing of his magnum opus "Moby Dick".

Though hailed by scholars and critics as a cultural classic, and a piece deemed far ahead of its time, it was perhaps too far ahead as "Moby Dick" was met with lukewarm reviews, and its commercial failure was such that it was out of print by 1891. Coupled with the failure of his follow-up book "Pierre", Melville became so discouraged he abandoned writing novels for good and returned to composing short stories and poems.

Rediscovered after the first decade of the 20th century, "Moby Dick" has since garnered the distinguished reputation as "The Great American Novel" -- joining the ranks of "The Great Gatsby" and "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" -- and has elevated Herman Melville's standing among American Authors as one of the pinnacle figures of American Romanticism -- a veneration he shares with his lifelong friend Nathaniel Hawthorne. Here are five lines delivered by, and proved to be a true force to behold, as the author, and the man that was Herman Melville:

Though Melville has long sailed to what may perhaps be far more blissful shores as we stand upon ones where he once stood, anchored in the heavens and before us, remain his works. Works to bear us hence. To places full of sober cannibals and drunk Christians, places where we may go with much laughter and continue to laugh much long after. Though the laughter may cease at long last, last may our voyage. Whether to more laughter that fades amidst the roar of the sea we know not whence.