Who said “We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men; and…”?

Misattributed

Not Herman Melville. It's commonly credited to them, but the evidence shows it isn't theirs.

What the research foundListed as misattributed to Herman Melville; no source in their known works.

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“We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men; and among those fibers, as sympathetic threads, our actions run as courses, and they come back to us as effects.”
— Herman Melville
MisattributedListed as misattributed to Herman Melville; no source in their known works. · evidenceAction

Cite this quote

APA

“We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men; and among those fibers, as sympathetic threads, our actions run as courses, and they come back to us as effects.” [Quotation attributed to Herman Melville]. (n.d.). Famous Quotations Network. Retrieved October 24, 2026, from https://www.famous-quotations.com/quotes/3289-we-cannot-live-only-for-ourselves-a-thousand/

MLA

“We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men; and among those fibers, as sympathetic threads, our actions run as courses, and they come back to us as effects.” Attributed to Herman Melville. Famous Quotations Network, https://www.famous-quotations.com/quotes/3289-we-cannot-live-only-for-ourselves-a-thousand/. Accessed 24 Oct. 2026.

Chicago

“We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men; and among those fibers, as sympathetic threads, our actions run as courses, and they come back to us as effects.” Attributed to Herman Melville. Famous Quotations Network. Accessed October 24, 2026. https://www.famous-quotations.com/quotes/3289-we-cannot-live-only-for-ourselves-a-thousand/.

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VerifiedSource: Winston Churchill (Author) and Richard Langworth (Editor) (28. Oktober 2008): Churchill by Himself: The Definitive Collection of Quotations. New York: PublicAffairs (1st Edition), page 160. · evidenceDetails & citeAction

More quotes by Herman Melville

“He says NO! in thunder; but the Devil himself cannot make him say yes.”
VerifiedLetter to Nathaniel Hawthorne, including bits of a review of his work that he had written (c. 16 April 1851); in Julian Hawthorne, Nathaniel Hawthorne and His Wife, vol. I (1884), ch. VIII, p. 388 · evidenceDetails & citeObstinacy
“I feel that the Godhead is broken up like the bread at the Supper, and that we are the pieces. Hence this infinite fraternity of feeling.”
VerifiedLetter to Nathaniel Hawthorne (July 1851); in Rose Hawthorne Lathrop, Memories of Hawthorne (1897), p. 158 · evidenceDetails & citeHuman Fellowship
“If some books are deemed most baneful and their sale forbid, how, then, with deadlier facts, not dreams of doting men? Those whom books will hurt will not be proof against events. Events, not books, should be forbid.”
VerifiedThe Encantadas (1854), Sketch Eighth · evidenceDetails & citeCensorship
“They talk of the dignity of work. The dignity is in leisure.”
Leisure
All 27 Herman Melville quotes →