There are certain queer times and occasions
in this strange mixed affair we call life when a man takes this whole universe
for a vast practical joke, though the wit thereof he but dimly discerns, and
more than suspects that the joke is at nobody’s expense but his own. However,
nothing dispirits, and nothing seems worthwhile disputing. He bolts down all events,
all creeds, and beliefs, and persuasions, all hard things visible and
invisible, never mind how knobby; as an ostrich of potent digestion gobbles
down bullets and gun flints. And as for small difficulties and worrying,
prospects of sudden disaster, peril of life and limb; all these, and death
itself, seem to him only sly, good-natured hits, and jolly punches in the side
bestowed by the unseen and unaccountable old joker. - Herman Melveille
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