Quotes from 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.

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

Is not a woman's heart unfathomable?

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!

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?

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?

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.

The sea is only the embodiment of a supernatural and wonderful existence.

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.

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.

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

I say, you do have a heart!" "Sometimes," he replied, "when I have the time.

With time and thought, one can do a good job.

Trains, like time and tide, stop for no one.

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

When you bring a man two millions of money, you need have but little fear that you will not be well received.

Now, when an American has an idea, he directly seeks a second American to share it. If there be three, they elect a president and two secretaries. Given four, they name a keeper of records, and the office is ready for work; five, they convene a general meeting, and the club is fully constituted.

Liberty is worth paying for.

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.

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

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.

The sea is only the embodiment of a supernatural and wonderful existence. It is nothing but love and emotion; it is the 'Living Infinite.

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

You will travel in a Land of Marvels