Captain Ahab

"I now demand that ye do the duty of the seamen."

"He tasks me; he heaps me; I see in him outrageous strength with an inscrutable malice sinewing it."

"Madness maddened! That wild madness that's only calm to comprehend itself!"

"I feel as though I am the instrument of some unseen power."

"Are you ready? Take the mainmast head!"

"This is my purpose—this is my desire—this is the fixed purpose of my soul."

"I'll chase him round Good Hope, and round the Horn, and round the Cape of Good Hope, and round the Norway Maelstrom, and round perdition's flames before I give him up."

"Strike through the mask!"

"I am the Fates' lieutenant; I act under orders."

"All that most maddens and torments; all that stirs up the lees of things; all truth with malice in it."

"I am a sick man; but I am a sound mind; and I mean to live yet."

"Swerve me? Ye cannot swerve me, else ye swerve yourselves!"

"Aye, aye! and I'll have a whaleboat to myself."

"This is my substitute for powder and ball"

"The path to my fixed purpose is laid with iron rails, whereon my soul is grooved to run"

"He tasks me; he heaps me"

"Strike through the mask! That is the key!"

"Death to Moby Dick! God hunt us all if we do not hunt Moby Dick to his death!"

"What is the cause that my soul is thus loosened from its moorings"

"I baptize thee not in the name of the father, but in the name of the devil"

"The mask! The mask!"

"From hell's heart, I stab at thee!"

"This task takes me from all sanity"

"The masthead of this ship is my seat of state"

"Aye, aye! And I'll chase him round Good Hope, and round the Horn, and round the Cape of the Good Hope, and round the Norway Maelstrom, and round perdition's flames before I give him up"

"I see in him outrageous strength with an inscrutable malice sinewing it"

"All thy crew are thine!"

"I try all things, I achieve what I can; therefore I am Ahab."

"It is the whiteness of the whale that wrings me."

"Methinks that what they call my shadow here on earth is my true substance."