"Be it said, that though I had felt such a strong repugnance to his smoking in the bed the night before, yet see how elastic our stiff prejudices grow when once love comes to bend them. For now I liked nothing better than to have Queequeg smoking by me, even in bed, because he seemed to be full of such serene household joy then."
Musing: Because it's my birthday, I will take today's quote as a gift and a sign of hope for our world. Queequeq, the cannibal, and Ishmael, the good Christian boy from the North East, put aside petty differences because of love. The entirety of the relationship between Queequeq and Ishmael should be required reading in schools and in the White House. How beautifully Melville writes of love in spite of initial fear.