QuoteProject
Why did the old Persians hold the sea holy? Why did the Greeks give it a separate deity, and own brother Jove? Surely all this is not without meaning. And still deeper the meaning of that story of Narcissus, who because he could not grasp the tormenting mild image he saw in the fountain, plunged into it and was drowned. But that same image, we ourselves see in all rivers and oceans. It is the image of the ungraspable phantom of life; and this is the key to it all.
Herman Melville
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote reflects on humanity's relationship with the sea and existence, emphasizing the unattainable nature of life.

In this quote, Herman Melville explores the profound significance of the sea and its representation of life's elusive nature. He connects the reverence ancient cultures had for the sea with the story of Narcissus, illustrating that just as Narcissus was captivated yet ultimately lost by the reflection in the water, individuals are often drawn to the beauty and mystery of life, which ultimately remains just out of reach. This underscores a deeper philosophical understanding of existence and the eternal quest for meaning that often leads to both fascination and despair.

Themes

SeaMeaningLifeExistenceNarcissusPhilosophy

In practice

Example use cases

In a speech about the mysteries of life and human ambition.

More from Herman Melville

A good laugh is a mighty good thing, and rather too scarce a good thing; the more's the pity. So, if any one man, in his own proper person, afford stuff for a good joke to anybody, let him not be backward, but let him cheerfully allow himself to spend and be spent in that way. And the man that has anything bountifully laughable about him, be sure there is more in that man than you perhaps think for.
Herman MelvilleRead
The Marquesan girls dance all over; not only do their feet dance, but their arms, hands, fingers, ay, their very eyes seem to dance in their heads.
Herman MelvilleRead
Dream tonight of peacock tails, Diamond fields and spouter whales. Ills are many, blessing few, But dreams tonight will shelter you.
Herman MelvilleRead
If some books are deemed most baneful and their sale forbid, how then with deadlier facts, not dreams of doting men? Those whom books will hurt will not be proof against events. Events, not books should be forbid.
Herman MelvilleRead
You cannot spill a drop of American blood without spilling the blood of the whole world.... We are not a nation, so much as a world.
Herman MelvilleRead
Dollars damn me; and the malicious Devil is forever grinning in upon me, holding the door ajar. ... What I feel most moved to write, that is banned - it will not pay. Yet, altogether, write the other way I cannot. So the product is a final hash, and all my books are botches.
Herman MelvilleRead

Similar quotes

You've always made the mistake of being yourself.
Eugene IonescoRead
The promise of pleasures so alluring that we may devote our lives to their pursuit, and then the haunting realization that these pleasures ultimately do not satisfy.
Philip YanceyRead
I was never kinder to the old man than during the whole week before I killed him.
Edgar Allan PoeRead
The unpredictable and the predetermined unfold together to make everything the way it is.
Tom StoppardRead
Not because Socrates said so, but because it is in truth my own disposition — and perchance to some excess — I look upon all men as my compatriots, and embrace a Pole as a Frenchman, making less account of the national than of the universal and common bond.
Michel De MontaigneRead
To different minds, the same world is a hell, and a heaven.
Ralph Waldo EmersonRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.