Think not, is my eleventh commandment; and sleep when you can, is my twelfth.
Interpretation
The quote suggests prioritizing rest and reflection over excessive overthinking.
Herman Melville's quote conveys the importance of rest and the value of not overthinking things. By stating 'Think not,' Melville implies that too much contemplation can lead to unnecessary stress, while 'sleep when you can' highlights the rejuvenating power of rest. Together, these commands encourage a balanced approach to life where one can recharge and find clarity without being overwhelmed by thoughts.
In practice
In a motivational speech about work-life balance, one could quote Melville to emphasize the importance of taking breaks.
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.
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.
Dream tonight of peacock tails, Diamond fields and spouter whales. Ills are many, blessing few, But dreams tonight will shelter you.
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.
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.
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.
I love to think. I once considered taking drugs as an attempt to better understand an altered state of mind; however, I decided not to. I didn't want to chance ruining the machine.
Nothing goes by luck in composition. It allows of no tricks. The best you can write will be the best you are.
The wise ones fashioned speech with their thought, sifting it as grain is sifted through a sieve.
Most people die of a sort of creeping common sense, and discover when it is too late that the only things one never regrets are one's mistakes.
Many are stubborn in pursuit of the path they have chosen, few in pursuit of the goal.
There are two times in a man's life when he should not speculate: when he can't afford it, and when he can.
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