Jules Verne

We are of opinion that instead of letting books grow moldy behind an iron grating, far from the vulgar gaze, it is better to let them wear out by being read.

If Providence has created the stars and the planets, man has called the cannonball into existence.

In the United States, there is no project so audacious for which people cannot be found to guarantee the cost and find the working expenses.

To put up with what you cannot avoid is a philosophical principle, that may not perhaps lead you to the accomplishment of great deeds, but is assuredly eminently practical.

In spite of the opinions of certain narrow-minded people who would shut up the human race upon this globe, we shall one day travel to the Moon, the planets, and the stars with the same facility, rapidity and certainty as we now make the ocean voyage from Liverpool to New York.

Dost thou know what life is, my child? Hast thou comprehended the action of those springs which produce existence? Hast thou examined thyself?

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

An energetic man will succeed where an indolent one would vegetate and inevitably perish.

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

You cannot oppose reasoning to pride, the principal of all the vices, since, by its very nature, the proud man refuses to listen to it.

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 electric telegraph?

All that is impossible remains to be accomplished.

As long as the heart beats, as long as body and soul keep together, I cannot admit that any creature endowed with a will has need to despair of life.

How tranquil is a coral tomb, and may the heavens grant that my companions and I be buried in no other!

Science, my lad, has been built upon many errors; but they are errors which it was good to fall into, for they led to the truth.

There is no more sagacious animal than the Icelandic horse. He is stopped by neither snow, nor storm, nor impassable roads, nor rocks, glaciers, or anything. He is courageous, sober, and surefooted. He never makes a false step, never shies. If there is a river or fjord to cross (and we shall meet with many) you will see him plunge in at once, just as if he were amphibious, and gain the opposite bank.

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

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!

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

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