“Are there no Moravians in the Moon, that not a missionary has yet visited this poor pagan planet of ours, to civilize civilisation and christianize Christendom?”

—  Herman Melville , book White-Jacket

This has often been quoted with modernized American spelling, rendering it "to civilize civilization and christianize Christendom?"
Source: White-Jacket (1850), Ch. 64

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Are there no Moravians in the Moon, that not a missionary has yet visited this poor pagan planet of ours, to civilize c…" by Herman Melville?
Herman Melville photo
Herman Melville 144
American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet 1818–1891

Related quotes

Brian Cox (physicist) photo

“We have written the evidence of our existence onto the surface of our planet. Our civilisation has become a beacon, that identifies our planet as home to life.”

Brian Cox (physicist) (1968) English physicist and former musician

Summing up the documentation Wonders of the Solar System, episode 5

Sören Kierkegaard photo

“When Christianity came into the world the task was simply to proclaim Christianity. The same is the case wherever Christianity is introduced into a country the religion of which is not Christianity.
In "Christendom" the situation is a different one. What we have before us is not Christianity but a prodigious illusion, and the people are not pagans but live in the blissful conceit that they are Christians. So if in this situation Christianity is to be introduced, first of all the illusion must be disposed of.”

Sören Kierkegaard (1813–1855) Danish philosopher and theologian, founder of Existentialism

Source: 1850s, Attack upon Christendom (1855), p. 97

Herman Melville photo

“I'll try a pagan friend, thought I, since Christian kindness has proved but hollow courtesy.”

Herman Melville (1818–1891) American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet
Mahatma Gandhi photo

“The indirect influence of Christianity has been to quicken Hinduism to life. The cultured Hindu society has admitted its grievous sin against the untouchables. But the effect of Christianity upon India in general must be judged by the life lived in our midst by the average Christian and its effect upon us. I am sorry to have to re record my opinion that it has been disastrous. It pains me to have to say that the Christian missionaries as a body, with honourable exceptions, have actively supported a system which has impoverished, enervated and demoralised a people considered to be among the gentlest and most civilized on earth…”

Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) pre-eminent leader of Indian nationalism during British-ruled India

Young India (13 July 1924), reprinted in Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, Volume 24, New Delhi, 1967, p. 476.
1920s

Ouida photo

“Even of death Christianity has made a terror which was unknown to the gay calmness of the Pagan and the stoical repose of the Indian.”

Ouida (1839–1908) British novelist

"Has Christianity Failed?" http://books.google.com/books?id=C1cCAAAAIAAJ&q="even+of+death+Christianity+has+made+a+terror+which+was+unknown+to+the+gay+calmness+of+the+Pagan+and+the+stoical+repose+of+the+Indian"&pg=PA215#v=onepage, in the The North American Review (February 1891)

David Hare photo

“The virtue of Paganism was strength: the virtue of Christianity is obedience.”

David Hare (1947) British writer

Augustus William Hare and Julius Charles Hare Guesses at Truth (London: Macmillan, ([1827-48] 1867) p. 1.
Misattributed

Israel Zangwill photo

“Scratch the Christian and you find the pagan — spoiled.”

Israel Zangwill (1864–1926) British writer

Children of the Ghetto (1892), bk. 2, ch. 6.

Robert Hunter (author) photo

“Thrift and foresight are among the chief teachings of all missionaries to the poor and the present day world has little sympathy for any parent”

Robert Hunter (author) (1874–1942) American sociologist, author, golf course architect

also see Charles Dickens, Bleak House
p. 60
Why We Fail as Christians (1919)
Context: Thrift and foresight are among the chief teachings of all missionaries to the poor and the present day world has little sympathy for any parent—whether a Harold Skimpole, a Mrs. Jellyby, a Jean Jacques Rousseau, or a Leo Tolstoy—who for any cause whatsoever feels that he should give no thought for the morrow and that his children may live like the fowls of the air.

“The Christmas-Festival is in one sense only, a Christian festival. It is based upon something belonging to the Greek and Roman paganism which the Christians took over. It is therefore older than Christianity. It is 'pagan,' to use the popular word.”

Gottfried de Purucker (1874–1942) Author, Theosophist

Source: The Story of Jesus (1938), Chapter 2

Constantine P. Cavafy photo

“Things impolitic and dangerous:
praise for Greek ideals,
supernatural magic, visits to pagan temples.”

Constantine P. Cavafy (1863–1933) Greek poet

Julian in Nicomedia http://www.cavafy.com/poems/content.asp?id=106&cat=1
Collected Poems (1992)
Context: Things impolitic and dangerous:
praise for Greek ideals,
supernatural magic, visits to pagan temples.
Enthusiasm for the ancient gods

Related topics