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 of death, that mortals realize the silent, subtle, ever-present perils of life. And if you be a philosopher, though seated in the whale-boat, you would not at heart feel one whit more of terror, than though seated before your evening fire with a poker, and not a harpoon, by your side.

Bachelors alone can travel freely, and without any twinges of their consciences touching desertion of the fire-side.

For all his tattooings he was on the whole a clean, comely looking cannibal.

Thou wine art the friend of the friendless, though a foe to all.

A book in a man's brain is better off than a book bound in calf - at any rate it is safer from criticism.

Courage is the most common and vulgar of the virtues.

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