| |
| . . . these are the times of dreamy quietude, when beholding the tranquil beauty and brilliancy of the ocean's skin, one forgets the tiger heart that pants beneath it; and would not willingly remember, that this velvet paw but conceals a remorseless fang. | | Uncategorized | |
| ..fiery yearnings their own phantom-futures make, and deem it present. So, after all these fearful, fainting trances, the verdict be, the golden haven was not gained - - yet, in bold quest thereof, better to sink in boundless deeps, than float on vulgar shoals; and give me, ye gods, an utter wreck, if wreck I do. | | Uncategorized | |
| A man thinks that by mouthing hard words he understands hard things. | | Uncategorized | |
| A noble craft, but somehow a most melancholy! All noble things are touched with that. | | Uncategorized | |
| A smile is the chosen vehicle of all ambiguities | | Smile | |
| |
| All deep, earnest thinking is but the intrepid effort of the soul to keep the open independence of her sea, while the wildest winds of heaven and earth conspire to cast her on the treacherous, slavish shore | | Uncategorized | |
| 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. | | Uncategorized | |
| |
| Art is the objectification of feeling. | | Art | |
| At last the anchor was up, the sails were set, and off we glided. It was a sharp, cold Christmas; and as the short northern day merged into night, we found ourselves almost broad upon the wintry ocean, whose freezing spray cased us in ice, as in polished armor. | | Uncategorized | |
| Better sleep with a sober cannibal than a drunken Christian. | | Drinking | |
| By this, he seemed to mean, not only that the most reliable and useful courage was that which arises from the fair estimation of the encountered peril, but that an utterly fearless man is a far more dangerous comrade than a coward. | | Uncategorized | |
| |
| Death is only a launching into the region of the strange Untried; it is but the first salutation to the possibilities of the immense Remote, the Wild, the Watery, the Unshored... | | Death and dying | |
| Do not presume, well-housed, well-warmed, and well-fed, to criticize the poor | | Criticism | |
| Faith, like a jackal, feeds among the tombs, and even from these dead doubts she gathers her most vital hope. | | Uncategorized | |
| |
| For as this appalling ocean surrounds the verdant land, so in the soul of man there lies one insular Tahiti, full of peace and joy, but encompassed by all the horrors of the half known life. God keep thee! Push not off from that isle, thou canst never return! | | Uncategorized | |
| For whatever is truly wondrous and fearful in man, never yet was put into words or books. | | Uncategorized | |
