Thoughts on MOBY DICK, 1: Two Particularly Excellent Quotations

In my spare time, I am currently reading the eponymous Moby Dick, by Herman Melville (special thanks to Jennifer Fulmer for the copy, and thanks to James Smith for the prod to do it now and the promise from his review), and am enjoying it.  It's slow going, but not for the text: for all the distractions of life.

While there have been many other good lines, these two are the most recent additions to my list of favorites of all time (and now, with the blog, I get to actually create said list), the first for its euphony, the second its analogy:

1. "...however it was, Flask, alas! was a butterless man!" (chapter 34).
2. "...my one cogged circle fits into all their various wheels, and they revolve.  Or, if you will, like so many ant-hills of powder, they all stand before me; and I their match.  Oh, hard! that to fire others, the match itself must needs be wasting!" (chapter 37).