Jules Verne

“Though sleep is called our best friend, it is a friend who often keeps us waiting!”

“Everybody knows that England is the world of betting men, who are of a higher class than mere gamblers: to bet is in the English temperament.”

“Man, a mere inhabitant of the earth, cannot overstep its boundaries! But though he is confined to its crust, he may penetrate into all its secrets.”

“When one has taken root, one puts out branches.”

“I believe cats to be spirits come to earth. A cat, I am sure, could walk on a cloud without coming through.”

“The sea does not belong to despots. Upon its surface men can still exercise unjust laws, fight, tear one another to pieces, and be carried away with terrestrial horrors. But at thirty feet b...”

“Far better to be the simplest pedestrian, with knapsack on back, stick in hand, and gun on shoulder, than an Indian prince travelling with all the ceremonial which his rank requires.”

“The Nautilus was piercing the water with its sharp spur, after having accomplished nearly ten thousand leagues in three months and a half, a distance greater than the great circle of the ear...”

“In spite of the opinions of certain narrow-minded people, who would shut up the human race upon this globe, as within some magic circle it must never outstep, we shall one day travel to the...”

“On the morrow the horizon was covered with clouds- a thick and impenetrable curtain between earth and sky, which unhappily extended as far as the Rocky Mountains. It was a fatality!”

“The industrial stomach cannot live without coal; industry is a carbonivorous animal and must have its proper food.”

“However strong, however imposing a ship may appear, it is not 'disgraced' because it flies before the tempest. A commander ought always to remember that a man's life is worth more than the m...”

“Everything great in science and art is simple. What can be less complicated than the greatest discoveries of humanity - gravitation, the compass, the printing press, the steam engine, the el...”

“Man's constitution is so peculiar that his health is purely a negative matter. No sooner is the rage of hunger appeased than it becomes difficult to comprehend the meaning of starvation. It...”

“How many persons condemned to the horrors of solitary confinement have gone mad - simply because the thinking faculties have lain dormant!”

“The Chinaman has only a passive courage, but this courage he possesses in the highest degree. His indifference to death is truly extraordinary. When he is ill, he sees it approach, and does...”

“I repeat that the distance between the earth and her satellite is a mere trifle, and undeserving of serious consideration. I am convinced that before twenty years are over, one-half of our e...”

“Man is never perfect nor contented.”

“Well, my friend, this earth will one day be that cold corpse; it will become uninhabitable and uninhabited like the moon, which has long since lost all its vital heat.”

“It is said that the night brings counsel, but it is not said that the counsel is necessarily good.”