“They have provided a system which for terse comprehensiveness surpasses Justinian's Pandects and the By-laws of the Chinese Society for the Suppression… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
“How I snuffed that Tartar air!--how I spurned that turnpike earth!--that common highway all over dented with the marks of slavish heels… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
“What business have I with this pipe? This thing that is meant for sereneness, to send up mild white vapors among mild… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
“Ahab is for ever Ahab, man. This whole act's immutably decreed. 'Twas rehearsed by thee and me a billion years before this… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
“one captain, seizing the line-knife from his broken prow, had dashed at the whale, as an Arkansas duelist at his foe, blindly… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
And so, through all the thick mists of the dim doubts in my mind, divine intuitions now and then shoot, enkindling my… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
“What do ye do when ye see a whale, men?” “Sing out for him!” was the impulsive rejoinder from a score of… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
“Is it not curious, that so vast a being as the whale should see the world through so small an eye, and… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
“in common life we esteem but meanly and contemptibly a fellow who anoints his hair, and palpably smells of that anointing. In… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
“It was a clear steel-blue day. The firmaments of air and sea were hardly separable in that all-pervading azure; only, the pensive… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
“But pity there was none. For all his old age, and his one arm, and his blind eyes, he must die the… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
“And let me in this place movingly admonish you, ye ship-owners of Nantucket! Beware of enlisting in your vigilant fisheries any lad… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
“It was a black and hooded head; and hanging there in the midst of so intense a calm, it seemed the Sphynx’s… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
“In life, the visible surface of the Sperm Whale is not the least among the many marvels he presents. Almost invariably it… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
“and man, though idiotic, and knowing not what he does, yet full of the sweet things of love and gratitude.” — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
“But were the coming narrative to reveal in any instance, the complete abasement of poor Starbuck's fortitude, scarce might I have the heart to… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
“(On Ralph Waldo Emerson)I love all men who dive. Any fish can swim near the surface, but it takes a great whale to go… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
“So seemed it to me, as I stood at her helm, and for long hours silently guided the way of this fire-ship on the… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
“Consider the subtleness of the sea; how its most dreaded creatures glide under water, unapparent for the most part, and treacherously hidden beneath the… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
“Is it that by its indefiniteness it shadows forth the heartless voids and immensities of the universe, and thus stabs us from behind with… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
“Now, as I before hinted, I have no objection to any person's religion, be it what it may, so long as that person does… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
Let America first praise mediocrity even, in her children, before she praises... the best excellence in the children of any other land. — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
“Yet this is life. For hardly have we mortals by long toilings extracted from this world's vast bulk its small but valuable sperm; and… — Herman Melville Copy Share Image
