"In this world it is not so easy to settle these plain things. I have ever found your plain things the knottiest of all."

"Seldom have I known any profound being that had anything to say to this world, unless forced to stammer out something by way of getting...

"The whale, like all things that are mighty, wears a false brow to the common world."

"Nor is the history of fanatics half so striking in respect to the measureless self-deception of the fanatic himself, as his measureless...

"Thus, while in life the great whale's body may have been a real terror to his foes, in his death his ghost becomes a powerless panic to...

"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...

"For all angels are nothing more than the shark, well governed."

"Out of the trunk, the branches grow; out of them, the twigs. So, in productive subjects, grow the chapters."

"All men live enveloped in whale-lines. All are born with halters round their necks; but it is only when caught in the swift, sudden turn...

"Consider, once more, the universal cannibalism of the sea; all whose creatures prey upon each other, carrying on eternal war since the...