{
  "type": "quote",
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  "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/herman-melville/moby-dick/the-act-of-paying",
  "json": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/herman-melville/moby-dick/the-act-of-paying.json",
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  "id": "235c38e4-edb0-401b-a88e-2fa494e783a4",
  "slug": "the-act-of-paying",
  "text": "The act of paying is perhaps the most uncomfortable infliction that the two orchard thieves entailed upon us. But being paid,—what will compare with it? The urbane activity with which a man receives money is really marvellous, considering that we so earnestly believe money to be the root of all earthly ills, and that on no account can a monied man enter heaven. Ah! how cheerfully we consign ourselves to perdition!",
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  "author": {
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  "book": {
    "title": "Moby-Dick",
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  "chapter": null,
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  "page": 5,
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  "topics": [
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      "name": "humor",
      "slug": "humor",
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    {
      "name": "money",
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  "source": {
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    "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Moby-Dick#Loomings_(1)",
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  "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:40:39",
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      "id": "ff9133f7-a81d-4dfd-a7ee-4b15c1910e9a",
      "slug": "whos-to-doom",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/herman-melville/moby-dick/whos-to-doom",
      "text": "Who's to doom, when the judge himself is dragged to the bar?",
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      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
      "page": 600,
      "verified": false,
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          "name": "justice",
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        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Moby-Dick#The_Symphony_(132)",
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          "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
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      },
      "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:40:42"
    },
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      "id": "d3acdc90-1191-4dfc-ac4b-5c9dc147fd9d",
      "slug": "what-is-it-what",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/herman-melville/moby-dick/what-is-it-what",
      "text": "What is it, what nameless, inscrutable, unearthly thing is it; what cozzening, hidden lord and master, and cruel, remorseless emperor commands me; that against all natural lovings and longings, I so keep pushing, and crowding, and jamming myself on all the time; recklessly making me ready to do what in my own proper, natural heart, I durst not so much as dare? Is Ahab, Ahab? Is it I, God, or who, that lifts this arm? But if the great sun move not of himself; but is as an errand-boy in heaven; nor one single star can revolve, but by some invisible power; how then can this one small heart beat; this one small brain think thoughts; unless God does that beating, does that thinking, does that living, and not I. By heaven, man, we are turned round and round in this world, like yonder windlass, and Fate is the handspike. And all the time, lo! that smiling sky, and this unsounded sea!",
      "language": "en",
      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
      "page": 599,
      "verified": false,
      "original": null,
      "other_languages": [],
      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "god",
          "slug": "god",
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        },
        {
          "name": "fate",
          "slug": "fate",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fate"
        },
        {
          "name": "free will",
          "slug": "free-will",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/free-will"
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      "source": {
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    {
      "id": "c2c9368c-1174-4f8c-b544-4e13c7d4e77f",
      "slug": "ahab-is-for",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/herman-melville/moby-dick/ahab-is-for",
      "text": "Ahab is for ever Ahab, man. This whole act's immutably decreed. 'Twas rehearsed by thee and me a billion years before this ocean rolled. Fool! I am the Fates' lieutenant; I act under orders.",
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      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Moby-Dick#The_Chase_%E2%80%93_Second_Day_(134)",
        "license": {
          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
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