"For small erections may be finished by their first architects; grand ones, true ones, ever leave the copestone to posterity. God keep me...

"It is better to fail in originality, than to succeed in imitation. He who has never failed somewhere, that man can not be great. Failure...

"On the second day, a sail drew near, nearer, and picked me up at last. It was the devious-cruising Rachel, that in her retracing search...

"Buoyed up by that coffin, for almost one whole day and night, I floated on a soft and dirge-like main. The unharming sharks, they glided...

"And now, liberated by reason of its cunning spring, and owing to its great buoyancy, rising with great force, the coffin like-buoy shot...

"Round and round, then, and ever contracting towards the button-like black bubble at the axis of that slowly wheeling circle, like...

"It so chanced, that after the Parsee's disappearance, I was he whom the Fates ordained to take the place of Ahab's bowsman, when that...

"At last the anchor was up, the sails were set, and off we glided. It was a short, cold Christmas; and as the short northern day merged...

"And I only am escaped alone to tell thee." JOB The Drama's Done. Why then here does any one step forth? - Because one did survive the...

"Now small fowls flew screaming over the yet yawning gulf; a sullen white surf beat against its steep sides; then all collapsed, and the...

"A sky-hawk that tauntingly had followed the main-truck downwards from its natural home among the stars, pecking at the flag, and...

"But as the last whelmings intermixingly poured themselves over the sunken head of the Indian at the mainmast, leaving a few inches of...

"For an instant, the tranced boat's crew stood still; then turned. "The ship? Great God, where is the ship?" Soon they through dim,...

"The harpoon was darted; the stricken whale flew forward; with igniting velocity the line ran through the grooves;-ran foul. Ahab stooped...

"Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering whale; to the last I grapple with thee; from hell's heart I stab at thee; for...

"I turn my body from the sun. What ho, Tashtego! let me hear thy hammer. Oh! ye three unsurrendered spires of mine; thou uncracked keel;...

"The ship! The hearse!-the second hearse!" cried Ahab from the boat; "its wood could only be American!" Musing: Reading this book again,...

"From the ship's bows, nearly all the seamen now hung inactive; hammers, bits of plank, lances, and harpoons, mechanically retained in...

"The whale, the whale! Up helm, up helm! Oh, all ye sweet powers of air, now hug me close! Let not Starbuck die, if die he must, in a...

"Meantime, for that one beholding instant, Tashtego's mast-head hammer remained suspended in his hand; and the red flag, half-wrapping...