Only the man who says no is free

There are two places in the world where men can most effectively disappear - the city of London and the South Seas.

I do not think I have any uncharitable prejudice against the rattlesnake, still, I should not like to be one.

Let America add Mexico to Texas, and pile Cuba upon Canada; let the English overswarm all India, and hang out their blazing banner from the sun; two thirds of this terraqueous globe are the Nantucketer's. For the sea is his; he owns it.

...in certain moods, no man can weigh this world without throwing in something, somehow like Original Sin, to strike the uneven balance.

The path to my fixed purpose is laid with iron rails whereon my soul is grooved to run

We may have civilized bodies and yet barbarous souls. We are blind to the real sights of this world; deaf to its voice; and dead to its death. And not till we know, that one grief outweighs ten thousand joys will we become what Christianity is striving to make us.