Quotes about Ahab

Nathaniel Philbrick

Instead of being a page-turner, 'Moby-Dick' is a repository of American history and culture and the essentials of Western literature. The book is so encyclopedic that space aliens could use it to re-create the whale fishery as it once existed on the planet Earth in the midst of the 19th century.

Edward Said

Captain Ahab was a man possessed with an obsessional drive to pursue the white whale which had harmed him - which had torn his leg out - to the ends of the Earth, no matter what happened. In the final scene of the novel, Captain Ahab is being borne out to sea, wrapped around the white whale with the rope of his own harpoon and going obviously to his death. It was a scene of almost suicidal finality.

Noam Chomsky

People who criticize power in the Jewish community are regarded the way Ahab treated Elijah: You're a traitor.

Salman Rushdie

Captain Ahab drowned, he reminded himself; it was the trimmer, Ishmael, who survived.

Mesha

Omri, king of Israel, has oppressed Moab many days…. His son succeeded him and he too said, “I will oppress Moab”.

This quotation is of historical significance because it is a source, in addition to the Bible, about the fact that the kingdom of Israel existed and was in conflict with the Moabites. Politically it is important currently because a few of the modern Arab leaders have claimed that there was never a Jewish Kingdom in the region and therefore the Jews do not have a claim on any of the land of Palestine. This is strong evidence that they are wrong. Omri was the 6th King of Israel and his son, Ahab, the 7th. A stele is an ancient stone with writing carved on it. The picture is of the Mesha Stele which today is in the Louvre Museum in Paris.

Nathaniel Philbrick

As Herman Melville wrote of that seagoing monster of a man Captain Ahab, “All mortal greatness is but disease.

Barney Frank

Ken Starr has become a prosecutorial Captain Ahab.

Ahab Quotes