赫尔曼·梅尔维尔（Herman Melville）的著名小说《白鲸记》（Moby Dick）是一部经典故事，讲述了一位船长在上一次航行中寻找并杀死一头咬掉部分腿的鲸鱼的史诗般的追求。罗伯特·麦克鲁姆为《卫报》撰稿时，将《白鲸》列为其英文小说排行榜的第17位，在125位作家的一系列排名中，《白鲸》被评为19世纪最伟大的小说作品之一。这部小说于1851年首次出版，但直到梅尔维尔去世后才获得好评。这部史诗小说的引述说明了为什么它一直是美国经典之作。

痴迷

“通往我既定目标的道路铺有铁轨，我的灵魂在铁轨上奔跑。”

亚哈，船长，愿意冒着他的船，他的船员和自己的生命的一切危险去报复这条难以捉摸的鲸鱼。这些引语显示了他对海洋的执着追求的深度。​引人入胜的语言仍然渗透到我们的文化中；在1982年的电影《星际迷航II：可汗之怒》中，里卡多·蒙塔勒班在银河系追逐柯克船长时，引用了这一部分第三句话。

"The path to my fixed purpose is laid with iron rails, whereon my soul is grooved to run. Over unsounded gorges, through the rifled hearts of mountains, under torrents’ beds, unerringly I rush! Naught’s an obstacle, naught’s an angle to the iron way!" "There is a wisdom that is woe; but there is a woe that is madness. And there is a Catskill eagle in some souls that can alike dive down into the blackest gorges, and soar out of them again and become invisible in the sunny spaces. And even if he for ever flies within the gorge, that gorge is in the mountains; so that even in his lowest swoop the mountain eagle is still higher than other birds upon the plain, even though they soar." "Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering whale; to the last I grapple with thee; from hell’s heart I stab at thee; for hate’s sake I spit my last breath at thee."​

疯狂

“我疯了！那种只有冷静才能理解自己的疯狂！”

亚哈暗示，他是上帝命中注定要消灭白鲸的，他相信白鲸是邪恶的化身。值得注意的是，当亚哈在这里的第一句话中解释他的痴迷时，他指的是他的大副星巴克，他是这家著名咖啡连锁店名字的灵感来源。

"What I’ve dared, I’ve willed; and what I’ve willed, I’ll do! They think me mad—Starbuck does; but I’m demoniac, I am madness maddened! That wild madness that’s only calm to comprehend itself! The prophecy was that I should be dismembered; and—Aye! I lost this leg. I now prophesy that I will dismember my dismemberer." "All that most maddens and torments; all that stirs up the lees of things; all truth with malice in it; all that cracks the sinews and cakes the brain; all the subtle demonisms of life and thought; all evil, to crazy Ahab, were visibly personified, and made practically assailable in Moby Dick. He piled upon the whale’s white hump the sum of all the general rage and hate felt by his whole race from Adam down; and then, as if his chest had been a mortar, he burst his hot heart’s shell upon it."