quotation of the week

"Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off - then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can. This is my substitute for pistol and ball. With a philosophical flourish Cato throws himself upon his sword; I quietly take to the ship. There is nothing surprising in this. If they but knew it, almost all men in their degree, some time or other, cherish very nearly the same feelings towards the ocean with me."

That's from the opening chapter of Moby Dick. Melville had it taped here. If you update the activities, and replace the phrase "get to sea" with "go abroad and teach" then you get the idea.


Comments

  1. MichaelMon Oct 15, 06:39:00 pm BST

    I know the feeling well. You'd be hard pressed to find any hat wearers in Hebburn, though - unless you count Burberry's baseball caps.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Garry NixonMon Oct 15, 06:53:00 pm BST

    Yeah - I did read that as "methodically knocking people's Burberry caps off - with a baseball bat..."

    ReplyDelete

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