From “Moby-Dick”

The subterranean miner that works in us all, how can one tell whither leads his shaft by the ever shifting, muffled sound of his pick?

–quoted in Jane Langton’s Dark Nantucket Noon, which I just finished. It’s a purplish murder mystery in which almost all of the twists are easily guessable; but it’s still affecting, and it has brought me as close as I’ve ever been to actually wanting to read Moby-Dick so there’s that.