Oh, Life!
Oh, life! 'tis in an hour like this, with soul beat down and held to knowledge,—as wild, untutored things are forced to feed—Oh, life! 'tis now that I do feel the latent horror in thee! but 'tis not me! that horror's out of me! and with the soft feeling of the human
in me, yet will I try to fight ye, ye grim, phantom futures! Stand by me, hold me, bind me, ye blessed influences! --Moby-Dick, Dusk
Oh, Life! thou unsought mystery, that springs from nothingness, to grasp at Eternity. Eternity! Awful shadow! incomprehensible Dread! On whose black threshold the spirit shrinks shuddering,
— till Hope comes, — like the star in the east.
--Scenes Beyond the Western Border, September 1852; and
Scenes and Adventures in the Army
"Oh, Life! Here I am, proud as Greek god, and yet standing debtor to this blockhead for a bone to stand on! Cursed be that mortal inter-indebtedness which will not do away with ledgers. I would be free as air; and I'm down in the whole world's books. I am so rich, I could have given bid for bid with the wealthiest Praetorians at the auction of the Roman empire (which was the world's); and yet I owe for the flesh in the tongue I brag with." (Ahab and the Carpenter)
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