“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.”

“We may brave human laws, but we cannot resist natural ones.”

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

“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.”

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

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

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