Tobias Langhoff’s Reviews > Moby-Dick; or, The Whale > Status Update

Interesting that this passage predates Walt Whitman's poem by 14 years: "Oh, my captain, my captain! [...] O master, my master, come back!"

Omen? omen?—the dictionary! If the gods think to speak outright to man, they will honorably speak outright; not shake their heads, and give an old wives' darkling hint.—Begone! Ye two are the opposite poles of one thing; Starbuck is Stubb reversed, and Stubb is Starbuck; and ye two are all mankind; and Ahab stands alone among the millions of the peopled earth, nor gods nor men his neighbors!

"live in the game, and die in it!" – Stubb has some philosophy in common with Omar Little.

Such, and so magnifying, is the virtue of a large and liberal theme! We expand to its bulk. To produce a mighty book, you must choose a mighty theme.

though man loved his fellow, yet man is a money-making animal, which propensity too often interferes with his benevolence.

for there is no folly of the beast of the earth which is not infinitely outdone by the madness of men.

Melville sure was smitten by monomania