“We cannibals must help these Christians.”
Herman Melville (1818–1891) American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet
Source: Moby-Dick or, The Whale
“Better sleep with a sober cannibal than a drunken Christian.”
Variant: Better to sleep with a sober cannibal than a drunk Christian.
Source: Moby-Dick or, The Whale
Last update June 3, 2021. History
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Herman Melville144
American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet 1818–1891Related quotes
“Now I am an outcast. I loathe my country. The best thing for me is a drunken sleep on the beach.”
Arthur Rimbaud (1854–1891) French Decadent and Symbolist poet
Source: Une saison en enfer; Illuminations; et autres textes
“The sleep of a wise man is far better than the worship of an ignorant one during the night.”
Musa al-Kadhim (745–799) Seventh of the Twelve Imams and regarded by Sunnis as a renowned scholar
Ibn Shu’ba al-Harrani, Tuhaf al-'Uqul, p. 419.
Regarding Knowledge & Wisdom, Religious
“Christianity is the war against sleep and dream.”
Ludwig Klages (1872–1956) German psychologist and philosopher
Source: Rhythmen und Runen (1944), p. 253
“This would explain why at any given time there are more cannibals than philosophical pessimists.”
Thomas Ligotti (1953) American horror author
The Conspiracy Against the Human Race: A Contrivance of Horror
Context: Optimism has always been an undeclared policy of human culture- one that grew out of our animal instincts to survive and reproduce- rather than an articulated body of thought. It is the default condition of our blood and cannot be effectively questioned by our minds or put in grave doubt by our pains. This would explain why at any given time there are more cannibals than philosophical pessimists.
“I've never written for a fasting man;
A taste of wine is good before my verse.
But sleep is better than a little wine,
For when sleeping one thinks my songs are dreams.”
Jejunis nil scribo: meum post pocula si quis<br/>legerit, hic sapiet.<br/>Sed magis hic sapiet, si dormiet: et putet ista<br/>somnia missa sibi.
Ausonius (310–395) poet
Jejunis nil scribo: meum post pocula si quis
legerit, hic sapiet.
Sed magis hic sapiet, si dormiet: et putet ista
somnia missa sibi.
"De Bissula", line 13; translation from Harold Isbell (trans.) The Last Poets of Imperial Rome (1971) p. 48.
Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, known for his works of science fiction …
W.B. Yeats book The Tower
I, st. 4 <br class="br">The Tower (1928), Nineteen Hundred And Nineteen http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1547/