We were alone. Where, I could not say, hardly imagine. All was black, and such a dense black that, after some minutes, my eyes had not been able to discern even the faintest glimmer.

The sea is everything. It covers seven tenths of the terrestrial globe. Its breath is pure and healthy. It is an immense desert, where man is never lonely, for he feels life stirring on all sides.

I believe cats to be spirits come to earth. A cat, I am sure, could walk on a cloud without coming through.

Liberty is worth paying for.

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

The Nautilus was piercing the water with its sharp spur, after having accomplished nearly ten thousand leagues in three months and a half, a distance greater than the great circle of the earth. Where were we going now, and what was reserved for the future?

Everybody knows that the great reversed triangle of land, with its base in the north and its apex in the south, which is called India, embraces fourteen hundred thousand square miles, upon which is spread unequally a population of one hundred and eighty millions of souls.

Science, my lad, is made up of mistakes, but they are mistakes which it is useful to make, because they lead little by little to the truth.

We were alone. Where, I could not say, hardly imagine. All was black, and such a dense black that, after some minutes, my eyes had not been able to discern even the faintest glimmer.

On the morrow the horizon was covered with clouds- a thick and impenetrable curtain between earth and sky, which unhappily extended as far as the Rocky Mountains. It was a fatality!

'Movement is life;' and it is well to be able to forget the past, and kill the present by continual change.

A man of merit owes himself to the homage of the rest of mankind who recognize his worth.

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

Ah! Young people, travel if you can, and if you cannot - travel all the same!

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

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.

Be it understood you are never rich when you get no advantage from it.

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

Civilization never recedes; the law of necessity ever forces it onwards.

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

Dost thou not understand that there are two distinct forces in us, that of the soul and that of the body, that is, a movement and a regulator?

Everybody knows that England is the world of betting men, who are of a higher class than mere gamblers: to bet is in the English temperament.

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?

Everything is possible for an eccentric, especially when he is English.

Far better to be the simplest pedestrian, with knapsack on back, stick in hand, and gun on shoulder, than an Indian prince travelling with all the ceremonial which his rank requires.

Fellows who have rascally faces have only one course to take, and that is to remain honest; otherwise, they would be arrested off-hand.

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

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

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.

I have noticed that many who do not believe in God believe in everything else, even in the evil eye.

I repeat that the distance between the earth and her satellite is a mere trifle, and undeserving of serious consideration. I am convinced that before twenty years are over, one-half of our earth will have paid a visit to the moon.

I seriously believed that my last hour was approaching, and yet, so strange is imagination, all I thought of was some childish hypothesis or other. In such circumstances, you do not choose your own thoughts. They overcome you.

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

Imagine a society in which there were neither rich nor poor. What evils, afflictions, sorrows, disorders, catastrophes, disasters, tribulations, misfortunes, agonies, calamities, despair, desolation and ruin would be unknown to man!

In consequence of inventing machines, men will be devoured by them.

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

In spite of the opinions of certain narrow-minded people, who would shut up the human race upon this globe, as within some magic circle it must never outstep, 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 voyage from Liverpool to New York!

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.

Is not a woman's heart unfathomable?

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.

It is certain that the inanimate objects by which you are surrounded have a direct action on the brain.

It is for others one must learn to do everything; for there lies the secret of happiness.

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

It may be taken for granted that, rash as Americans usually are, when they are prudent, there is good reason for it.

It must be that a man who shuts himself up between four walls must lose the faculty of associating ideas and words.

Man is never perfect nor contented.

Man's constitution is so peculiar that his health is purely a negative matter. No sooner is the rage of hunger appeased than it becomes difficult to comprehend the meaning of starvation. It is only when you suffer that you really understand.

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.

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.