Moby Dick

[Old Thunder]

But even this wears off in time.

 

[Old Thunder]

What of it, if some old hunks of a sea-captain orders me to get a broom and sweep down the decks?

 

[Old Thunder]

What does that indignity amount to, weighed, I mean, in the scales of the New Testament?

 

[Old Thunder]

Do you think the archangel Gabriel thinks anything the less of me, because I promptly and respectfully obey that old hunks in that particular instance?

 

[Old Thunder]

Who ain't a slave?

 

[Old Thunder]

Tell me that.

 

[Old Thunder]

Well, then, however the old sea-captains may order me about -- however they may thump and punch me about, I have the satisfaction of knowing that it is all right: that everybody else is one way or other served in much the same way -- either in a physical sense or metaphysical point of view, that is; and so the universal thump is passed round, and all hands should rub each other's shoulder-blades, and be content.

 

[Old Thunder]

Again, I always go to sea as a sailor, because they make a point of paying me for my trouble, whereas they never pay passengers a single penny that I ever heard of.

 

[Old Thunder]

On the contrary, passengers themselves must pay.

 

[Old Thunder]

And there is all the difference in the world between paying and being paid.