"In a word, it was Queequeg’s conceit, that if a man made up his mind to live, mere sickness could not kill him: nothing but a whale, or a gale, or some violent, ungovernable, unintelligent destroyer of that sort could."
Musing: Melville puts this thought on Queequeq. It seems to suggest that while mankind has power over his mind, nature still has the upper hand. I think. Sometimes Moby-Dick is hard!