"But this occasional timidity is characteristic of almost all herding creatures. Witness, too, all human beings, how when herded together...

"For d'ye see, rainbows do not visit the clear air; they only irradiate vapor. And so, through all the thick mists of the dim doubts in...

The whale "is both ponderous and profound. And I am convinced that from the heads of all ponderous profound beings, such as Plato,...

"My dear sir, in this world it is not so easy to settle these plain things. I have ever found your plain things the knottiest of all. And...

"It is plain, then, that phrenologically the head of this Leviathan, in the creature's living intact state, is an entire delusion. As for...

"For I believe that much of a man's character will be found betokened in his backbone. I would rather feel your spine than your skull,...

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

"Oh, man! admire and model thyself after the whale! Do thou, too, remain warm among ice. Do thou, too, live in this world without being...

"So long as a man's eyes are open in the light, the act of seeing is involuntary; that is, he cannot then help mechanically seeing...

"Out of the trunk, the branches grow; out of them, the twigs. So, in productive subjects, grow the chapters." Musing: The title of this...