"Any man may kill a snake, but only a Perseus, a St. George, a Coffin, have the heart in them to march boldly up to a whale."

"There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness is the true method."

"I rejoice in my spine, as in the firm audacious staff of that flag which I fling half out to the world."

"I would rather feel your spine than your skull, whoever you are. A thin joist of a spine never yet upheld a full and noble soul."

"For I believe that much of a man's character will be found betokened in his backbone."

"I try all things; I achieve what I can."

"Though I am but ill qualified for a pioneer, in the application of these two semi-sciences to the whale, I will do my endeavor."

"Why then do you try to enlarge your mind? Subtilize it."

"So long as a man's eyes are open in the light, the act of seeing is involuntary."

"Here, now, are two great whales, laying their heads together; let us join them, and lay together our own."