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.
Interpretation
The quote reflects on the American can-do spirit and a belief in overcoming challenges.
Jules Verne's quote captures the essence of American optimism and the belief that challenges can be easily tackled. It suggests that in America, people have a mindset that dismisses the notion of impossibility, implying a cultural inclination towards innovation and perseverance, as if obstacles are just minor inconveniences that can swiftly be resolved before they even present themselves.
In practice
In a motivational speech about overcoming adversity, one might include this quote to illustrate American determination.
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.
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.
Man, a mere inhabitant of the earth, cannot overstep its boundaries! But though he is confined to its crust, he may penetrate into all its secrets.
As we go through life we gradually discover who we are, but the more we discover, the more we lose ourselves.
Paradox: how do we know what we have failed to see because we have no language to express it, thus we cannot know that we have failed to see it.
This will be the day when we shall bring into full realization the dream of American democracy - a dream yet unfulfilled. A dream of equality of opportunity, of privilege and property widely distributed; a dream of a land where men will not take necessities from the many to give luxuries to the few.
There would not be a perfect likeness of God in the universe if all things were of one grade of being.
The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule.
But for me there is neither Monday nor Sunday: there are days which pass in disorder, and then, sudden lightning like this one. Nothing has changed and yet everything is different. I can't describe it, it's like the Nausea and yet it's just the opposite: at last an adventure happens to me and when I question myself I see that it happens that I am myself and that I am here; I am the one who splits in the night, I am as happy as the hero of a novel.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.