Ladies are like creeds; if you cannot speak well of them, say nothing.

A noble craft, but somehow a most melancholy! All noble things are touched with that.

The sweetest joys of life grow in the very jaws of its perils.

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.

I never fancied broiling fowls; - though once broiled, judiciously buttered, and judgmatically salted and peppered, there is no one who will speak more respectfully, not to say reverentially, of a broiled fowl than I will.

Let me look into a human eye; it is better than to gaze into sea or sky; better than to gaze upon God.

The worst of our evils we blindly inflict upon ourselves; our officers cannot remove them, even if they would.