"Perseus, St. George, Hercules, Jonah, and Vishnu! there's a member-roll for you! What club but the whale-man's can head off like that?"

"It is not necessary that we consider Jonah as tombed in the whale's belly but as temporarily lodged in some part of his mouth. And this...

"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."