123 Quotes by Nathaniel Philbrick

As Starbuck discovers, simply being a good guy with a positive worldview is not enough to stop a force of nature like Ahab, who feeds on the fears and hatreds in us all.

This is where Melville is perhaps the most profound in his portrait of Ahab as the demagogue and dictator. In the end, even the fiercest of tyrants is done in, not by his own sad, used-up self, but by his enablers, the so-called professionals, who keep whispering in his ear."p.105

There was a saying on the island: "[I]t is a pity to spoil a good mate by making him a master.

A survival tale peels away the niceties and comforts of civilization. Suddenly, all the technology and education in the world means nothing. I think all of us wonder while reading a survival tale, 'What would I have done in this situation? Would I have made it?'

In all natural disasters through time, man needs to attach meaning to tragedy, no matter how random and inexplicable the event is.

In the years to come, the combination of climate change and population growth could have a devastating effect on the planet and, needless to say, on humanity.

Whaling was the oil business of its day.

I follow the Patriots, but the Steelers were my first and true love. I still have a Terrible Towel.

As long as I can remember, I've been writing - first poems, then stories, and by my early teenage years I was also in love with sailing.