“There is nothing nameable but that some men will undertake to do it for pay.”

—  Herman Melville , book Billy Budd, Sailor

Source: Billy Budd, the Sailor (1891), Ch. 21
Context: Who in the rainbow can draw the line where the violet tint ends and the orange tint begins? Distinctly we see the difference of the colors, but where exactly does the one first blendingly enter into the other? So with sanity and insanity. In pronounced cases there is no question about them. But in some supposed cases, in various degrees supposedly less pronounced, to draw the exact line of demarcation few will undertake tho' for a fee some professional experts will. There is nothing nameable but that some men will undertake to do it for pay.

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 "There is nothing nameable but that some men will undertake to do it for pay." by Herman Melville?
Herman Melville photo
Herman Melville 144
American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet 1818–1891

Related quotes

Warren Farrell photo

“Men’s pay paid women to love and nurture, to connect and feel. To be nurturer-connectors. In contrast, men received their pay by being some form of killer-protector. By becoming a human doing (a captain or a coal miner), not a human being”

Warren Farrell (1943) author, spokesperson, expert witness, political candidate

a person who feels happy or sad
Women Can't Hear What Men Don't Say (2000)

“Nothing I like to do pays well.”

Charles Portis book True Grit

Source: True Grit (1968), Chapter 6, p. 141 : 'Rooster Cogburn' to 'Mattie Ross'

Samuel R. Delany photo

“Slaves are men and women who labor for no pay. Over there are men who do no labor for no pay. The similarity is enough so that they might make the mistake themselves.”

Samuel R. Delany book Neveryóna

Source: Neveryóna (1983), Chapter 7, “Of Commerce, Capital, Myths, and Missions” (p. 147)

“Failure should be our teacher, not our undertaker. Failure is delay, not defeat. It is a temporary detour, not a dead end. Failure is something we can avoid only by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing.”

Denis Waitley (1933) American writer
Cormac McCarthy photo

“Notions of chance and fate are the preoccupations of men engaged in rash undertakings.”

Cormac McCarthy book Blood Meridian

Blood Meridian (1985)

“By doing nothing men learn to do ill.”

Publilio Siro Latin writer

Maxim 318
Compare Ecclesiasticus 33:27 (KJV): "idleness teacheth much evil".
Sentences, The Moral Sayings of Publius Syrus, a Roman Slave

Donald J. Trump photo

“You've seen my statements, I do very well, I don't mind paying some taxes. The middle class is getting clobbered in this country. You know the middle class built this country, not the hedge fund guys, but I know people in hedge funds that pay almost nothing and it's ridiculous.”

Donald J. Trump (1946) 45th President of the United States of America

Interview on Bloomberg's With All Due Respect — * 2015-08-26
Donald Trump Says He Wants to Raise Taxes on Himself
David Knowles
Bloomberg
http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-08-26/donald-trump-says-he-wants-to-raise-taxes-on-himself
2010s, 2015

Thomas Jackson photo

“Endeavor to do well with everything you undertake.”

Thomas Jackson (1824–1863) Confederate general

Misattributed, Jackson's personal book of maxims

Ali al-Rida photo

“Reason is a free gift from God and politeness is acquisition. He who undertakes politeness has power over it. He who undertakes reason increases (himself) through that nothing but ignorance.”

Ali al-Rida (770–818) eighth of the Twelve Imams

Muhammad Kulayni, Usūl al-Kāfī, vol.1, p. 23.
Religious Wisdom

“I do not admire that you do not undertake your face, man!”

Róbert Puzsér (1974) hungarian publicist

Quotes from him, Csillag születik (talent show between 2011-2012)

Related topics