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Home  »  Respectfully Quoted  »  Herman Melville (1819–91)

Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations. 1989.

 
NUMBER: 863
AUTHOR: Herman Melville (1819–91)
QUOTATION: So, cutting the lashing of the waterproof match keg, after many failures Starbuck contrived to ignite the lamp in the lantern; then stretching it on a waif pole, handed it to Queequeg as the standard-bearer of this forlorn hope. There, then, he sat, holding up that imbecile candle in the heart of that almighty forlornness. There, then, he sat, the sign and symbol of a man without faith, hopelessly holding up hope in the midst of despair.
ATTRIBUTION: HERMAN MELVILLE, Moby-Dick, chapter 48, p. 251 (1851).
SUBJECTS: Hope