Jules Verne

“Passepartout was astounded, and, though ready to attempt anything to get over Medicine Creek, thought the experiment proposed a little too American.”

“populations”

“[...] Il professore lasciò la propria camera, armato di quel violino da tasca che si chiama pochette, per essere pronto ad ogni evento; salì lo scalone del palazzo, coi piedi in posizione accademica, come si addice a un maestro di ballo, bussò all'uscio dello studio, entrò, col corpo seminchinato, i gomiti inarcati, la bocca sorridente, e attese in terza posizione, dopo aver incrociato i piedi uno davanti all'altro, alla metà della loro lunghezza, con le caviglie riunite e le punte voltate verso l'esterno.Chiunque altro, al posto del professore Tartelett, messo in quella specie di equilibrio instabile, avrebbe vacillato sulla sua base, lui invece seppe mantenere una perpendicolarità assoluta.”

“— Il grasso Taskinar!Il nome corse di bocca in bocca. Sì! il grasso Taskinar! Era conosciutissimo! La sua corpulenza aveva fornito l'argomento di più di un articolo ai giornali dell'Unione. Non so più quale matematico aveva perfino dimostrato, con certi suoi calcoli trascendentali, che la sua massa era abbastanza grande da influenzare quella del nostro satellite e da turbare, in proporzione apprezzabile, gli elementi dell'orbita lunare.”

“— Isola in vendita per contanti, più le spese, al miglior offerente! — andava ripetendo a perdifiato Dean Felporg, banditore dell'auction, in cui venivano dibattute le condizioni di questa bizzarra vendita.— Isola in vendita! Isola in vendita! — ripeteva con voce ancora più sonora l'annunciatore Gingrass, che andava e veniva in mezzo a una folla eccitatissima.”

“In the course of time, Michael Strogoff reached a high station in the Empire. But it is not the history of his success, but the history of his trials, which deserves to be related.”

“One single supporter remained faithful to him: an old paralytic, Lord Albermarle. The noble lord, confined to his armchair, would have given his whole fortune to be able to travel around the world, in ten years even; and he bet four thousand pounds on Phileas Fogg.”

“No sir, it is evidently a gigantic narwhal”

“I am the Colombus of this nether world!Dr. Leidenbrock”

“But what then? What had he really gained by all this trouble? What had he brought back from this long and weary journey?Nothing, you say? Perhaps so; nothing but a charming woman, who, strange as it may appear, made him the happiest of men!Truly, would you not for less than that make the tour around the world?”

“Oh, figures!' answered Ned. 'You can make figures do whatever you want.”

“Zwei Jahre Ferien', davon träumt gewiß jeder Junge, wenn ihm die Schule zum Hals heraushängt, aber auch auf einer einsamen und noch so herrlichen Insel muß man sich zusammenreißen, Ordnung halten und sich auf die anderen einstellen, wenn man überleben will.”

“Captain Nemo pointed to this prodigious heap of shellfish, and I saw that these mines were genuinely inexhaustible, since nature's creative powers are greater than man's destructive instincts.”

“What!You know German?”

“The cold, increased by the tremendous speed, deprived them of the power of speech.”

“Wherever he saw a hole he always wantedto know the depth of it. To him this was important.”

“With its untold depths, couldn't the sea keep alive such huge specimens of life from another age, this sea that never changes while the land masses undergo almost continuous alteration? Couldn't the heart of the ocean hide the last–remaining varieties of these titanic species, for whom years are centuries and centuries millennia?”

“It seems wisest to assume the worst from the beginning...and let anything better come as a surprise.”

“Are we rising again?" "No. On the contrary." "Are we descending?" "Worse than that, captain! we are falling!" "For Heaven's sake heave out the ballast!" "There! the last sack is empty!" "Does the balloon rise?" "No!" "I hear a noise like the dashing of waves. The sea is below the car! It cannot be more than 500 feet from us!" "Overboard with every weight! … everything!”

“Die Schönheiten dieser neuen Gegenden setzten mich über die Maßen in Erstaunen. Prachtvolle Gestaltungen, Lagen und Stellungen der Eisblöcke. Hier sahen sie aus wie eine orientalische Stadt mit zahllosen Minaretts und Moscheen; dort wie eine durch Erdbeben zerfallene Stadt. Ansichten, die in den schief fallenden Sonnenstrahlen unaufhörlich wechselten oder inmitten der Schneestürme sich in graue Nebel verloren. Dann allerwärts polterndes Zusammenstürzen hinpurzelnder Eisberge mit wechselnden Dekorationen wie in einem Diorama.”

“IN WHICH PASSEPARTOUT RECEIVES A NEW PROOF THAT FORTUNE FAVORS THE BRAVE”

“Oh!' cried Neb, 'suppose it's jam!''I hope not,' replied the reporter.”

“Your dead sleep quietly, at least, Captain, out of reach of sharks" "Yes, sir, of sharks and men.”

“Science, my boy, is made up of mistakes, but they are mistakes which it is useful to make, because they lead little by little to the truth.”

“Was he being devoured by one of those secret rages, all the more terrible because contained, and which only burst forth, with irresistible force, at the last moment?”

“Alluding to the extent of Florida, a mere peninsula confined between two seas, they pretended that it could never sustain the shock of the discharge, and that it would "bust up" at the very first shot."Very well, let it bust up!" replied the Floridans, with a brevity of the days of ancient Sparta.”

“Well, I feel that we should always put a little art into what we do. It's better that way.”

“How many things have been denied one day, only to become realities the next!”

“Conseil: If that is the case, this dugong may well be the last of its race, and perhaps it would be better to spare it, in the interest of science.Ned Land: Perhaps it will be better to hunt it, in the interest of the kitchen.”

“Ned Land: I wouldn't be surprised if they were cannibals; but I can assure you they won't eat me without my having something to say about it!Conseil: Keep calm, Ned, keep calm. You're getting angry before there is any need to. We're not in the pot yet!”

“Personne n'eût pensé à rester chez soi, et surtout personne ne songeait à remettre le pied au Roi Mathias, où des voix comminatoires se faisaient entendre. Que des murs aient des oreilles, passe encore, puisque c'est une locution qui a court dans le langage usuel... mais une bouche!...”

“What pen can describe this scene of marvellous horror; what pencil can portray it?”

“Steam seems to have killed all gratitude in the hearts of sailors.”

“El mas habil explicador de cosas inexplicables no entenderia lo que quieres decirHabla con mas claridad ¿de que se trata?-Wang respondiendo a Kin-fo”

“Look with all your eyes, look.”

“A ondulação deste número infinito de montanhas, cujos cumes nevados os fazem parecer como que cobertas por espuma, trouxe a minha lembrança a superfície de um oceano sendo espancado por uma tempestade. Se olhei para o oeste, o oceano exibia-se diante de mim em toda a sua majestosa grandeza, uma continuação de certo modo, um destes lanosos topos. Onde a terra terminava e o mar começava era impossível para o olho distinguir.”

“It may be taken for granted that, rash as the Americans are, when they are prudent there is good reason for it.”

“Her shining tresses, divided in two parts, encircle the harmonious contour of her white and delicate cheeks, brilliant in their glow and freshness. Her ebony brows have the form and charm of the bow of Kama, the god of love, and beneath her long silken lashes the purest reflections and a celestial light swim, as in the sacred lakes of Himalaya, in the black pupils of her great clear eyes. Her teeth, fine, equal, and white, glitter between her smiling lips like dewdrops in a passion-flower's half-enveloped breast. Her delicately formed ears, her vermilion hands, her little feet, curved and tender as the lotus-bud, glitter with the brilliancy of the loveliest pearls of Ceylon, the most dazzling diamonds of Golconda. Her narrow and supple waist, which a hand may clasp around, sets forth the outline of her rounded figure and the beauty of her bosom, where youth in its flower displays the wealth of its treasures; and beneath the silken folds of her tunic she seems to have been modelled in pure silver by the godlike hand of Vicvarcarma, the immortal sculptor.”

“And this accident came about...?"Through nature's unpredictability not man's incapacity. No errors were committed in our maneuvers. Nevertheless, we can't prevent a loss of balance from taking its toll. One may defy human laws, but no one can withstand the laws of nature.”

“Ah, monsieur, to live in the bosom of the sea! Only there can independence be found! There I recognize no master! There I am free!”

“There are no impossible obstacles; there are just stronger and weaker wills, that’s all!”

“It must be, for there is a logic to everything on this earth and nothing is done without a reason, that God sometimes lets scientists discover.”

“Why lower oneself to taking pride from being American or British, when you can boast of being man!”

“With time and thought, one can do a good job.”

“We now know most things that can be measured in this world, except the bounds of human ambition!”

“Whereas, once under way, you can get so far that going forwards is the only choice.”

“A scholar has to know a little of everything.”

“My house is small, but may heaven grant that it is never full of friends.”

“Well, I thought I was so tranquil! I need to give up that illusion! There is decidedly no rest to be had in this world.”

“People caught up in the excitement of mutiny could not maintain for long that union which allows great things to be accomplished. A ring leader of mutineers never has anything but an uncertain power in his hands.”