He at once resolved to accompany me to that island, ship aboard the same vessel, get into the same watch, the same boat, the same mess with me, in short to share my every hap; with both my hands in his, boldly dip into the Potluck of both worlds.
Sharing the same blood with England, and yet her proved foe in two wars – not wholly inclined at bottom to forget an old grudge – intrepid, unprincipled, reckless, predatory, with boundless ambition, civilized in externals but a savage at heart, America is, or may yet be, the Paul Jones of nations. Regarded in this indicatory.
Are you a believer in ghosts, my friend? There are other ghosts than the Cock-Lane one, and far deeper men than Doctor Johnson who believe in them.
In his fiery eyes of scorn and triumph, you then saw Ahab in all his fatal pride.
It’s worth a fellow’s while to be born into the world, if only to fall right asleep.
Yonder, to windward, all is blackness of doom; but to leeward, homeward – I see it lightens up there; but not with the lightning.
The great Leviathan is that one creature in the world which must remain unpainted to the last.
A short life to them, and a jolly death.
It rolls the mid-most waters of the world, the Indian Ocean and Atlantic being just its arms.
Fast-Fish? What.
Champollion deciphered the wrinkled granite hieroglyphics. But there is no Champollion to decipher the Egypt of every man’s and every being’s face.
Be careful in the hunt, ye mates.
You cannot hide the soul. Through all his unearthly tattooings, I thought I saw the traces of a simple honest heart; and in his large, deep eyes, fiery black and bold, there seemed tokens of a spirit that would dare a thousand devils. And.
Not seldom in this life, when, on the right side, fortune’s favourites sail close by us, we, though all adroop before, catch somewhat of the rushing breeze, and joyfully feel our bagging sails fill out. So seemed it with the Pequod. For next day.
What are the sinews and souls of Russian serfs and Republican slaves but Fast-Fish, whereof possession is the whole of the law?
Methinks my body is but the lees of my better being. In fact take my body who will, take it I say, it is not me.
No, when I go to sea, I go as a simple sailor.
No, Stubb; you may pound that knot there as much as you please, but you will never pound into me what you were just now saying.
I stand alone here upon an open sea, with two oceans and a whole continent between me and law.
Ye two are the opposite poles of one thing; Starbuck is Stubb reversed, and Stubb is Starbuck; and ye two are all mankind; and Ahab stands alone among the millions of the peopled earth, nor gods nor men his neighbors! Cold, cold – I shiver! – How now? Aloft there! D’ye see him? Sing out for every spout, though he spout ten times a second!