58 Quotes & Sayings By Jules Verne

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

So, fatality will play me these terrible tricks. The elements themselves conspire to overwhelm me with mortification. Air, fire, and water combine their united efforts to oppose my passage. Well, they shall see what the earnest will of a determined man can do. I will not yield, I will not retreat even one inch; and we shall see who shall triumph in this great contest - man or nature. Jules Verne

Still, for long the love of science triumphed over all other feelings. He became an artist deeply impressed by the marvels of art, a philosopher to whom no one of the higher sciences was unknown, a statesman versed in the policy of European courts. To the eyes of those who observed him superficially he might have passed for one of those cosmopolitans, curious of knowledge, but disdaining action; one of those opulent travelers, haughty and cynical, who move incessantly from place to place, and are of no country. Jules Verne

I gazed at these marvels in profound silence. Words were utterly wanting to indicate the sensations of wonder I experienced. I seemed, as I stood upon that mysterious shore, as if I were some wandering inhabitant of a distant planet, present for the first time at the spectacle of some terrestrial phenomena belonging to another existence. To give body and existence to such new sensations would have required the coinage of new words - and here my feeble brain found itself wholly at fault. I looked on, I thought, I reflected, I admired, in a state of stupefaction not altogether unmingled with fear! . Jules Verne

Science, great, mighty and in the end unerring, science has fallen into many errors - errors which have been fortunate and useful rather than otherwise, for they have been the steppingstones to truth. Jules Verne

Phileas Fogg, having shut the door of his house at half-past eleven, and having put his right foot before his left five hundred and seventy-five times, and his left foot before his right five hundred and seventy-six times, reached the Reform Club Jules Verne

The sea is everything. It covers seven-tenths of the terrestrial globe. Its breath is pure and life-giving. It is an immense desert place where man is never lonely, for he senses the weaving of Creation on every hand. It is the physical embodiment of a supernatural existence.. For the sea is itself nothing but love and emotion. It is the Living Infinite, as one of your poets has said. Nature manifests herself in it, with her three kingdoms: mineral, vegetable, and animal. The ocean is the vast reservoir of Nature. Jules Verne

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. Jules Verne

In the course of time, Michael Strogoff reached a high station in the Empire. But it is not the history of his success, but the history of his trials, which deserves to be related. Jules Verne

Friend, " replied Michael Strogoff, "Heaven reward thee for all thou hast done for me! "" Only fools expect reward on earth, " replied the mujik. Jules Verne

It is only when you suffer that you truly understand. Jules Verne

But what then? What had he really gained by all this trouble? What had he brought back from this long and weary journey? Nothing, say you? Perhaps so;... Truly, would you not for less than that go around the world? Jules Verne

I looked on, I thought, I reflected, I admired, in a state of stupefaction not altogether unmingled with fear! Jules Verne

...why, I've just this instant found out... that we might have gone around the world in only seventy-eight days. Jules Verne

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

Death, the beginning of eternal things, is only the end of earthly cares. -Priest Jules Verne

When I returned to partial life my face was wet with tears. How long that state of insensibility had lasted I cannot say. I had no means now of taking account of time. Never was solitude equal to this, never had any living being been so utterly forsaken. Jules Verne

Though sleep is called our best friend, it is a friend who often keeps us waiting! Jules Verne

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

Help! "This was my last cry. My mouth filled with water, I struggled against being drawn the abyss. Suddenly my clothes were seized by a strong hand, and I felt myself quickly drawn up to the surface of the sea; and I heard, yes, I heard these words pronounced in my ear:" If master would be so good as to lean on my shoulder, master would swim with much greater ease." I seized with one hand my faithful Conseil's arm. "Is it you?" said I, "you?""Myself, " answered Conseil; "and waiting master's orders."" That shock threw you as well as me in the sea?"" No; but, being in my master's service, I followed him." The worthy fellow thought that was but natural. . Jules Verne

If there were no thunder, men would have little fear of lightning. Jules Verne

Aures habent et non audient` - `They have ears but hear not Jules Verne

One of my objectives is learning more than is absolutely necessary. Jules Verne

I wanted to protect my professorial dignity and not lay myself open to laughter from the Americans, who when they do laugh, laugh raucously Jules Verne

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

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

Your story is not a picture of life; it lacks the elements of truth. And why? Simply because you run straight on to the end; because you do not analyze. Your heroes do this thing or that from this or that motive, which you assign without ever a thought of dissecting their mental and moral natures. Our feelings, you must remember, are far more complex than all that. In real life every act is theresultant of a hundred thoughts that come and go, and theseyou must study, each by itself, if you would create a livingcharacter. 'But, ' you will say, 'in order to note these fleetingthoughts one must know them, must be able to follow them in their capricious meanderings. You have simply to make use of hypnotism, electrical or human, which gives one a two-fold being, setting free the witness-personality so that it may see, understand, and remember the reasons which determine the personality that acts. . Jules Verne

God, if he believed in Him, and his conscience, if he had one, were the only judges to whom he was answerable. Jules Verne

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. Jules Verne

A minimum put to good use is enough for anything. Jules Verne

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! Jules Verne

Put two ships in the open sea, without wind or tide, and, at last, they will come together. Throw two planets into space, and they will fall one on the other. Place two enemies in the midst of a crowd, and they will inevitably meet; it is a fatality, a question of time; that is all. Jules Verne

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. Jules Verne

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. Jules Verne

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? Jules Verne

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

With happiness as with health: to enjoy it, one should be deprived of it occasionally. Jules Verne

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. Jules Verne

The industrial stomach cannot live without coal industry is a carbonivorous animal and must have its proper food. Jules Verne

What is there unreasonable in admitting the intervention of a supernatural power in the most ordinary circumstances of life? Jules Verne

The Chinaman has only a passive courage, but this courage he possesses in the highest degree. His indifference to death is truly extraordinary. When he is ill, he sees it approach, and does not falter. When condemned, and already in the hands of an officer, he manifests no fear. Jules Verne

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

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. Jules Verne

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

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. Jules Verne

Liberty is worth paying for. Jules Verne

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? Jules Verne