“ One often hears of writers that rise and swell with their subject, though it may seem but an ordinary one. How, then, with me, writing of this Leviathan? Unconsciously my chirography expands into plac… Herman Melville
“ Call me Ishmael. Some years ago--never mind how long precisely--having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the… Herman Melville
“ I'll try a pagan friend, thought I, since Christian kindness has proved but hollow courtesy. Herman Melville
“ One captain, seizing the line-knife from his broken prow, had dashed at the whale, as an Arkansas duelist at his foe, blindly seeking with a six-inch blade to reach the fathom-deep life of the whale.… Herman Melville
“ And yet a child’s utter innocence is but its blank ignorance, and the innocence more or less wanes as intelligence waxes. Herman Melville
“ There is, one knows not what sweet mystery about this sea, whose gently awful stirrings seem to speak of some hidden soul beneath... Herman Melville
“ But the reason why the grave-digger made music must have been because there was none in his spade Herman Melville
“ [T]here is no folly of the beasts of the earth which is not infinitely outdone by the madness of men. Herman Melville
“ And the drawing near of Death, which alike levels all, alike impresses all with a last revelation, which only an author from the dead could adequately tell. Herman Melville
“ They have provided a system which for terse comprehensiveness surpasses Justinian's Pandects and the By-laws of the Chinese Society for the Suppression of Meddling with other People's Business. Herman Melville
“ So true it is, and so terrible, too, that up to a certain point the thought or sight of misery enlists our best affections; but, in certain special cases, beyond that point it does not. they err who w… Herman Melville
“ Ahab is for ever Ahab, man. This whole act's immutably decreed. 'Twas rehearsed by thee and me a billion years before this ocean rolled. Fool! I am the Fates' lieutenant, I act under orders. Herman Melville
“ The sea had jeeringly kept his finite body up, but drowned the infinite of his soul. Not drowned entirely, though. Rather carried down alive to wondrous depths, where strange shapes of the unwarped pr… Herman Melville
“ In life, the visible surface of the Sperm Whale is not the least among the many marvels he presents. Almost invariably it is all over obliquely crossed and re-crossed with numberless straight marks in… Herman Melville
