"Ahab stands alone among the millions of the peopled earth, nor gods nor men his neighbors."

"If the gods think to speak outright to man, they will honorably speak outright; not shake their heads and give an old wives' darkling...

"What soulless thing is this that laughs before a wreck?"

"And as in an already over-clouded sky fresh troops of clouds will sometimes sail across, so over the old man's face there now stole such...

"Noble natures contain the entire circumferences of inferior souls."

"In an instant's compass, great hearts sometimes condense to one deep pang, the sum total of those shallow pains kindly diffused through...

"With straining eyes, then, they remained on the outer edge of the direful zone, whose center had now become the old man's head."

"Helpless Ahab's head was seen, like a tossed bubble which the least shock might burst."

"The white whale now shook the slight cedar as a mildly cruel cat her mouse."

"The glittering mouth yawned beneath the boat like an open-doored marble tomb."