Quotes About Courage

And the only mode in which you can derive even a tolerable idea of his living contour, is by going a whaling yourself; but by so doing, you run no small risk of being eternally stove and sunk by him. Wherefore, it seems to me you had best not be too fastidious in your curiosity touching this Leviathan.

better is it to perish in that howling infinite, than be ingloriously dashed upon the lee

There was an infinity of firmest fortitude, a determinate, unsurrenderable wilfulness, in the fixed and fearless, forward dedication of 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.

And thus, through the courage and great skill in obstetrics of Queequeg, the deliverance, or rather, delivery of Tashtego, was successfully accomplished

So, cutting the lashing of the waterproof match keg, after many failures Starbuck contrived to ignite the lamp in the lantern; then stretching it on a waif pole, handed it to Queequeg as the standard-bearer of this forlorn hope. There, then, he sat, holding up that imbecile candle in the heart of that almighty forlornness. There, then, he sat, the sign and symbol of a man without faith, hopelessly holding up hope in the midst of despair.

Ignorance is the parent of fear...

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. Aye

Now, art thou the man to pitch a harpoon down a live whale's throat, and then jump after it? Answer, quick!

Woe to him who seeks to please rather than appall.

I will have no man in my boat, said Starbuck, who is not afraid of a whale. 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.

But no more of this blubbering now, we are going a-whaling, and there is plenty of that yet to come.

Sing out and say something, my hearties. Roar and pull, my thunderbolts! Beach me, beach me on their black backs, boys; only do that for me, and I'll sign over to you my Martha's Vineyard plantation, boys; including wife and children, boys.

Accursed fate! that the unconquerable captain in the soul should have such a craven mate!

You cannot hide the soul. Through all his unearthly tattooings, I thought I saw the traces of a simple honest heart; and in his large, deep eyes, fiery black and bold, there seemed tokens of a spirit that would dare a thousand devils. And

Ledyard, the great New England traveller, and Mungo Park, the

Y si uno es un filósofo, aunque esté sentado en una lancha ballenera no sentirá un ápice más de terror que sentado ante el fuego del anochecer, con un atizador y no un arpón al lado.

Die Wahrheit, dass alles tiefe, ernsthafte Denken nur das unerschrockene Streben der Menschenseele ist, sich die hohe Freiheit ihrer Meere zu bewahren; dieweil die wildesten Winde zwischen Himmel und Erde sich verschworen haben, uns an der elenden Knechtschaft der Küste scheitern zu lassen.

If man will strike, strike through the mask!

Herman Melville

God, God is against thee, old man; forbear! 't is an ill voyage! ill begun, ill continued; let me square the yards, while we may, old man, and make a fair wind of it homewards, to go on a better voyage than this.

Pensar é audácia

No quiero a ningún hombre en mi barco que no tenga miedo de la ballena», decía Starbuck. Con esto parecía insinuar no sólo que el valor más seguro y más útil es el que surge de una justa estimación del peligro que se afronta, sino también que un hombre que ignora el miedo es compañero mucho más riesgoso que un cobarde. —Sí

el que no conoce el miedo resulta mucho más peligroso que un cobarde para sus compañeros.