evidence: FACT CHECK: Did Herman Melville Say, ‘A Thousand Fibers Connect Us With Our Fellow Men’? An image shared on Facebook claims author Herman Melville once said, "We cannot live only for ourselves. [...] The expression actually originates with Melvill, an Anglican preacher of no relation to Melville, according to Norsworthy. In an 1855 sermon, Melvill said, "Ye live not for yourselves; ye cannot live for yourselves; a thousand fibres connect you with your fellow-men, and along those fibres, as along sympathetic threads, run your actions as causes, and return to you as effects."