Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
Truth is rare and elusive in a world of lies, appearing only briefly and cleverly in great art. Masters of literature reveal it indirectly rather than directly.
In plain terms
Truth is hard to find and often appears indirectly in great art.
What can you take from it?
Great artists reveal truth subtly rather than directly.

Where it applies

  • reading literature
  • seeking truth
  • analyzing art

Putting it to work

  • look for hidden meanings
  • value subtle expression

Questions to consider

  • Where have you found truth in art?
  • Why is truth often hidden?

Another view

Direct truth is sometimes more effective than indirect revelation.

More from Herman Melville

  1. Would that all excellent books were foundlings, without father or mother, that so it might be, we could glorify them, without including their ostensible author…

    Permalink to quote #16
  2. It is better to fail in originality, than to succeed in imitation. He who has never failed somewhere, that man can not be great. Failure is the true test of gr…

    Permalink to quote #18
  3. The worst of our evils we blindly inflict upon ourselves; our officers cannot remove them, even if they would. From the last ills no being can save another; th…

    Permalink to quote #15

Related quotes

  1. Self-portraiture is something one should never get involved in, since it is wrong to lie even though one endeavours to tell the truth.

    Ingmar BergmanIngmar Bergman quote #1
  2. Literature that is not the breath of contemporary society, that dares not transmit the pains and fears of that society, that does not warn in time against thre…

    Alexander SolzhenitsynAlexander Solzhenitsyn quote #1
  3. Please don't lie to me, unless you're absolutely sure I'll never find out the truth.

    Ashleigh BrilliantAshleigh Brilliant quote #1