“In this world, shipmates, sin that pays its way can travel freely and without a passport; whereas Virtue, if a pauper, is stopped at all frontiers.”

“And here, shipmates, is true and faithful repentance; not clamorous for pardon, but grateful for punishment.”

“There is all the different in the world between paying and being paid.”

“It does seem to me, that herein we see the rare virtue of a strong individual vitality, and the rare virtue of thick walls, and the rare virtue of interior spaciousness. Oh, man! admire and model thyself after the whale! Do thou, too, remain warm among ice. Do thou, too, live in this world without being of it. Be cool at the equator; keep thy blood fluid at the Pole. Like the great dome of St. Peter's, and like the great whale, retain, O man! in all seasons a temperature of thine own.”

“I deny their credentials as whales; and have presented them with their passports to quit the Kingdom of Cetology.”

“Thought he, it's a wicked world in all meridians; I'll die a pagan.”

“Can it be, then, that by that act of physical isolation, he signifies his spiritual withdrawal for the time, from all outward worldly ties and connections?”