The Moby-Dick Bible
< Back to the concordance

Themes › Human Helplessness

Human Helplessness

1 passage in the novel carry this mark, in the order they appear.

But if the great sun move not of himself; but is as an errand-boy in heaven; nor one single star can revolve, but by some invisible power; how then can this one small heart beat; this one small brain think thoughts; unless God does that beating, does that thinking, does that living, and not I. By heaven, man, we are turned round and round in this world, like yonder windlass, and Fate is the handspike. And all the time, lo! that smiling sky, and this unsounded sea!

Chapter 132, The Symphony · verse 14

Read in context >