Top 3 Moby Dick quotes
"How it is I know not; but there is no place like a bed for confidential disclosures between friends. Man and wife, they say, there open the very bottom of their souls to each other; and some old couples often lie and chat over old times till nearly morning. Thus, then, in our hearts' honeymoon, lay I and Queequeg—a cosy, loving pair." - Chapter 10
This section of the book details how Ishmael and Queequeg establish their bond. At first, Ishmael is reluctant to share a bed with another man but as he spends more time with him, he begins to realize that there is a lot to Queequeg that he appreciates and even admires. How they stay together in the bed through the course of the night evokes themes of homoeroticism, and conveys a profound connection that has nothing to do with their wealth or status in society.
"Come, Ahab's compliments to ye; come and see if ye can swerve me. Swerve me? ye cannot swerve me, else ye swerve yourselves! man has ye there. Swerve me? The path to my fixed purpose is laid with iron rails, whereon my soul is grooved to run. Over unsounded gorges, through the rifled hearts of mountains, under torrents' beds, unerringly I rush! Naught's an obstacle, naught's an angle to the iron way!" - Chapter 37
This forms part of Ahab's soliloquy, he provokes the listener to attempt to dissuade him from his purpose and tempers it with the idea that he is as much bound to that course and as a train on iron rails. Throughout the book, Ahab uses language masterfully to sway the feelings of the crew, and even to the reader his speech sometimes takes on rhythms similar to poetry and music.
"There is a wisdom that is woe; but there is a woe that is madness. And there is a Catskill eagle in some souls that can alike dive down into the blackest gorges, and soar out of them again and become invisible in the sunny spaces. And even if he for ever flies within the gorge, that gorge is in the mountains; so that even in his lowest swoop the mountain eagle is still higher than other birds upon the plain, even though they soar." - Chapter 96
Ishmael thinks thus when he snaps himself out of the reverie that overtook him as he stares at the fires of the Try-works. The manner in which Ishmael takes a mundane occurrence and dives headlong into its philosophical implications can be observed throughout the course of the book. Here he attempts to warn the reader of the dangers of escapism and fantasy, he instead advocates that there is something to be gained even in woe. He defends the insane Ahab by citing the instance of an eagle that sweeps in a mountainous gorge but yet remains above those birds that soar over the plains.
