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!
Interpretation
The quote highlights the vastness of human knowledge and the mysteries that remain unknown.
Jules Verne's quote reflects on the immense body of knowledge humanity has accumulated, suggesting that while we may have a substantial understanding of the world, the realm of the unknown is even greater. It emphasizes the idea that our quest for knowledge is endless and that there is always more to discover beyond our current understanding.
In practice
In a speech about the importance of education, one might say, 'What a big book might be made with all that is known!' to inspire curiosity in students.
Travel enables us to enrich our lives with new experiences, to enjoy and to be educated, to learn respect for foreign cultures, to establish friendships, and above all to contribute to international cooperation and peace throughout the world.
It is always a vulgar and often an unhealthy pastime, and it is a vice which does not go alone; the man who gambles will find himself capable of any evil.
Nothing can astound an American. It has often been asserted that the word 'impossible' is not a French one. People have evidently been deceived by the dictionary. In America, all is easy, all is simple; and as for mechanical difficulties, they are overcome before they arise.
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 mere satisfaction of his own pride. In any case, to be obstinate is blameable, and to be wilful is dangerous.
The Yankees, the first mechanicians in the world, are engineers - just as the Italians are musicians and the Germans metaphysicians - by right of birth. Nothing is more natural, therefore, than to perceive them applying their audacious ingenuity to the science of gunnery.
Nothing is more dreadful than private duels in America. The two adversaries attack each other like wild beasts. Then it is that they might well covet those wonderful properties of the Indians of the prairies - their quick intelligence, their ingenious cunning, their scent of the enemy.
Glamour cannot exist without personal social envy being a common and widespread emotion. The industrial society ... recognises nothing except the power to acquire ... No other kind of hope or satisfaction or pleasure can any longer be envisaged within the culture of capitalism.
A craving for freedom and independence is generated only in a man still living on hope.
Let us never forget that authentic power is service, which has its radiant culmination on the Cross.
Hell, in my opinion, is never finding your true self and never living your own life or knowing who you are.
Every video I'm in, every magazine cover, they stretch you; they make you perfect. It's not real life.
Dirt's a funny thing,' the Boss said. 'Come to think of it, there ain't a thing but dirt on this green God's globe except what's under water, and that's dirt too. It's dirt makes the grass grow. A diamond ain't a thing in the world but a piece of dirt that got awful hot. And God-a-Mighty picked up a handful of dirt and blew on it and made you and me and George Washington and mankind blessed in faculty and apprehension. It all depends on what you do with the dirt. That right?
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