Quotes / Moby-Dick

The novel

"What is it, what nameless, inscrutable, unearthly thing is it; what cozening, hidden lord and master, and cruel, remorseless emperor commands me; that against all natural lovings and longings, I so keep pushing, and crowding, and jamming myself on all the time; recklessly making me ready to do what in my own proper, natural heart, I durst not so much as dare? Is Ahab, Ahab? Is it I, God, or who, that lifts this arm? But if the great sun move not of himself; but is as an errand-boy in heaven; nor one single star can revolve, but by some invisible power; how then can this one small heart beat; this one small brain think thoughts; unless God does that beating, does that thinking, does that living, and not I. By heaven, man, we are turned round and round in this world, like yonder windlass, and Fate is the handspike."

—Ahab, pondering Fate

For, it was not so much his uncommon bulk that so much distinguished him from other sperm whales, but, as was elsewhere thrown out—a peculiar snow-white wrinkled forehead, and a high, pyramidical white hump. These were his prominent features; the tokens whereby, even in the limitless, uncharted seas, he revealed his identity, at a long distance, to those who knew him.

The rest of his body was so streaked, and spotted, and marbled with the same shrouded hue, that, in the end, he had gained his distinctive appellation of the White Whale; a name, indeed, literally justified by his vivid aspect, when seen gliding at high noon through a dark blue sea, leaving a milky-way wake of creamy foam, all spangled with golden gleamings.

—Description of Moby Dick

All that most maddens and torments; all that stirs up the lees of things; all truth with malice in it; all that cracks the sinews and cakes the brain; all the subtle demonisms of life and thought; all evil, to crazy Ahab, were visibly personified, and made practically assailable in Moby Dick. He piled upon the whale's white hump the sum of all the general rage and hate felt by his whole race from Adam down; and then, as if his chest had been a mortar, he burst his hot heart's shell upon it.

—Chapter 41, describing Ahab's obsession

About the novel

Live-Action TV

CSU Tech: Can you imagine dying while reading Moby Dick?
Detective Lennie Briscoe: Sure. It almost killed me.
CSU Tech: You actually read this thing?
Detective Lennie Briscoe: I got through 30 pages about whale blubber, then I bailed out.

— Law & Order, after discovering a copy of the novel in the room of the Victim of the Week.

Metaphors? I hate metaphors. That's why my favorite book is Moby Dick. No froufrou symbolism, just a good simple tale about a man who hates an animal!

[...]

Does the white whale actually symbolize the unknowability and meaninglessness of human existence? -chuckles- No. It's just a sh*tty fish.

—Ron Swanson, Parks and Recreation

Music

"Split your lungs with blood and thunder
When you see the white whale
Break your backs and crack your oars men
If you wish to prevail
This ivory leg is what propels me
Harpoons thrust in the sky
Aim directly for his crooked brow
And look him straight in the eye
White whale, holy grail
White whale, holy grail"

— Mastodon, "Blood and Thunder"

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