| The Columbia World of Quotations. 1996. |
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| NUMBER: | 38725 |
| QUOTATION: | Biography, in its purer form, confined to the ended lives of the true and brave, may be held the fairest meed of human virtue—one given and received in entire disinterestedness—since neither can the biographer hope for acknowledgment from the subject, not the subject at all avail himself of the biographical distinction conferred. |
| ATTRIBUTION: | Herman Melville (1819–1891), U.S. author. Israel Potter (1855), dedication, The Writings of Herman Melville, vol. 8, eds. Harrison Hayford, Hershel Parker, and G. Thomas Tanselle (1982). |
| BIOGRAPHY: | Columbia Encyclopedia. |
| WORKS: | Melville Collection. |
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| | | The Columbia World of Quotations. Copyright © 1996 Columbia University Press. |
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