We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men; and along these fibers, as sympathetic threads, our actions run as causes, and they come back to us as effects.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Melville emphasizes human interconnectedness, stating that our actions affect others and return to us as consequences. He uses the metaphor of fibers to describe how we are bound together.
- In plain terms
- We are all connected, and our actions toward others eventually come back to affect us.
- What can you take from it?
- Understand that your actions ripple outward and return to you through others.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- How do our actions affect others?
- In what ways are we connected?
Another view
The metaphor assumes a moral symmetry that does not always exist in real-world outcomes.
More from Herman Melville
Quotations attributed to Herman Melville, but for which no citation is provided
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Permalink to quote #60 But me they'll lash me in hammock, drop me deep. Fathoms down, fathoms down, how I'll dream fast asleep. I feel it stealing now. Sentry, are you there? Just ea…
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