Jules Verne

“What you do for money you do badly.”

“One friend is always sacrificed to the other in friendship.”

“Man is never perfect, nor contended.”

“What a big book, captain, might be made with all that is known!""And what a much bigger book still with all that is not known!”

“The colonists had no library at their disposal; but the engineer was a book which was always at hand, always open at the page which one wanted, a book which answered all their questions, and which they often consulted.”

“In presence of Nature's grand convulsions man is powerless.”

“All great actions return to God, from whom they are derived.”

“He who is mistaken in an action which he sincerely believes to be right may be an enemy, but retains our esteem.”

“Solitude, isolation, are painful things, and beyond human endurance.”

“One's native land!―there should one live! there die!”

“And whichsoever way thou goest, may fortune follow.”

“Vier Tage lang, bis zum 3. Februar, befand sich der Nautilus im Meer von Oman, mit verschiedener Schnelligkeit und in verschiedener Tiefe. Es schien, als fahre er aufs Geratewohl, als habe er über die Fahrt geschwankt; doch kam er nicht über den Wendekreis des Krebses hinaus.Indem wir dieses Meer verließen, bekamen wir einen Augenblick Mascat zu sehen, die bedeutendste Stadt im Land Oman. Ich bewunderte ihr seltsames Aussehen, mitten in einer Umgebung schwarzer Felsen weiße Häuser und Festungswerke in grellem Abstich. Ich sah die runden Kuppeln ihrer Moscheen mit den schlanken Spitzen ihrer Minarette, ihren Terrassen in frischem Grün. Aber es war nur ein Gesicht meiner Phantasie, denn der Nautilus tauchte bald unter die dunkeln Wellen dieser Gegenden.”

“The human mind delights in grand conceptions of supernatural beings.”

“While there is life there is hope. I beg to assert...that as long as a man's heart beats, as long as a man's flesh quivers, I do not allow that a being gifted with thought and will can allow himself to despair.”

“Für den Dichter ist die Perle eine Träne des Meeres; für die Orientalen ein fest gewordener Tautropfen; für die Frauen ein längliches Kleinod von durchsichtigem Glanz und Perlmutterstoff, welches sie am Finger, Hals oder Ohr tragen; für den Chemiker eine Mischung von phosphorsaurem und kohlensaurem Salz mit ein wenig Leim, und endlich für den Naturkundigen nur eine krankhafte Ausscheidung des Organes, welches bei einigen zweischaligen Muscheln die Perlmutter erzeugt.”

“Besides," said Kennedy, "the time when industry gets a grip of everything and uses it to its own advantage may not be particularly amusing. If men go on inventing machinery they'll end up by being swallowed by their own machines. I've always thought that the last day will be brought about by some colossal boiler heated to three thousand atmospheres blowing up the world.""And I bet the Yankees will have had a hand in it," said Joe.”

“I see that it is by no means useless to travel, if a man wants to see something new”

“Until I dicover the meaning of this sentence, I will neither eat nor sleep."My dear uncle-" I began."Nor you either," he added.”

“As for difficulties," replied Ferguson, in a serious tone, "they were made to be overcome.”

“It was obvious that the matter had to be settled, and evasions were distasteful to me.”

“La Méditerranée n’est qu’un lac, comparée aux vastes plaines liquides du Pacifique, mais c’est un lac capricieux, aux flots changeants, aujourd’hui propice et caressant pour la frêle tartane qui semble flotter entre le double outremer des eaux et du ciel, demain, rageur, tourmenté, démonté par les vents, brisants les plus forts navires de ses lames courtes qui les frappent à coups précipités.”

“- Eh bien, monsieur le naturaliste, demanda le Canadien d’un ton légèrement goguenard, et cette Méditerranée?- Nous flottons à sa surface, ami Ned.- Hein! Fit Conseil, cette nuit même?...- Oui, cette nuit même, en quelques minutes, nous avons franchi cet isthme infranchissable.- Je n’en crois rien, répondit le Canadien.- Et vous avez tort, maître Land, repris-je. Cette côte basse qui s’arrondit vers le sud est la côte égyptienne.- À d’autres, monsieur, répliqua l’entêté Canadien.”

“« Et ces sauvages ? me demanda Conseil. N'en déplaise à monsieur, ils ne me semblent pas très méchants !-- Ce sont pourtant des anthropophages, mon garçon.-- On peut être anthropophage et brave homme, répondit Conseil, comme on peut être gourmand et honnête. L'un n'exclut pas l'autre.-- Bon ! Conseil, je t'accorde que ce sont d'honnêtes anthropophages, et qu'ils dévorent honnêtement leurs prisonniers. Cependant, comme je ne tiens pas à être dévoré, même honnêtement, je me tiendrai sur mes gardes... »”

“- Continuons donc notre excursion, repris-je, mais ayons l’œil aux aguets, quoique l’ile paraisse inhabitée, elle pourrait renfermer, cependant, quelques individus qui seraient moins difficiles que nous sur la nature du gibier!- He! He! Fit Ned Land, avec un mouvement de mâchoire très significatif.- Eh bien! Ned! S’écria Conseil.- Ma foi, riposta le canadien, je commence à comprendre les charmes de l’anthropophagie!- Ned! Ned! Que dites-vous la! Réplique Conseil. Vous, anthropophage! Mais je ne serai plus en sûreté près de vous, moi qui partage votre cabine! Devrai-je donc me réveiller un jour a demi dévoré?- Ami Conseil, je vous aime beaucoup, mais pas assez pour vous manger sans nécessité.”

“Before all masters, necessity is the one most listened to, and who teaches the best.”

“Dinner was ready. Professor Lidenbrock did full justice to it, for his compulsory fast on board had turned his stomach into an unfathomable gulf.”

“At Kiel, as elsewhere, a day goes by somehow or other.”

“Is the Master out of his mind?' she asked me.I nodded.'And he's taking you with him?'I nodded again.'Where?' she asked.I pointed towards the centre of the earth.'Into the cellar?' exclaimed the old servant.'No,' I said, 'farther down than that.”

“Aures habent et non audient` - `They have ears but hear not”

“If there were no thunder, men would have little fear of lightning.”

“To the sheepfold!”

“The sea is only the embodiment of asupernatural and wonderful existence.It is nothing but love and emotion;it is the ‘Living Infinite...”

“The chance which now seems lost may present itself at the last moment.”

“It is certain," exclaimed my uncle in a tone of triumph. "But silence, do you hear me? silence upon the whole subject; and let no one get before us in this design of discovering the centre of the earth.”

“Ah!" I cried, springing up. "But no! no! My uncle shall never know it. He would insist upon doing it too. He would want to know all about it. Ropes could not hold him, such a determined geologist as he is! He would start, he would, in spite of everything and everybody, and he would take me with him, and we should never get back. No, never! never!"My over-excitement was beyond all description.”

“The earth does not need new continents, but new men.”

“When I returned to partial life my face was wet with tears. How long that state of insensibility had lasted I cannot say. I had no means now of taking account of time. Never was solitude equal to this, never had any living being been so utterly forsaken.”

“In lighthearted countries, people joked about this phenomenon, but such serious, practical countries as England, America, and Germany were deeply concerned.”

“So is man's heart. The desire to perform a work which will endure, which will survive him, is the origin of his superiority over all other living creatures here below. It is this which has established his dominion, and this it is which justifies it, over all the world.”

“It is a great misfortune to be alone, my friends; and it must be believed that solitude can quickly destroy reason.”

“Reality provides us with facts so romantic that imagination itself could add nothing to them.”

“The sea is only the embodiment of a supernatural and wonderful existence. It is nothing but love and emotion; it is the 'Living Infinite'...The globe began with sea, so to speak; and who knows if it will not end with it? In it is supreme tranquility.”

“Adieu, soleil ! s'écria-t-il. Disparais, astre radieux ! Couche-toi sous cette mer libre, et laisse une nuit de six mois étendre ses ombres sur mon nouveau domaine !”

“Savages!' he echoed, ironically. 'You set foot on one of the shores of this globe, professor, and you’re surprised to find savages? Where aren’t there savages? Besides, are they any worse than others, these whom you call savages?”

“I have been, am, in his service; I have seen his generosity and goodness; and I will never betray him-not for all the gold in the world. I have come from a village where they don't eat that kind of bread.”

“Basta! Quando a ciência se manifesta, não há outra coisa senão calar-se.”

“O homem que nasceu para ir à forca, jamais morrerá afogado!”

“A true Englishman doesn't joke when he is talking about so serious a thing as a wager.”

“I looked on, I thought, I reflected, I admired, in a state of stupefaction not altogether unmingled with fear!”

“Anything one man can imagine, other men can make real.”