Jules Verne Quotes

129 Sourced Quotes

"Thus, my friends," said Barbicane, "all motion suddenly stopped produces heat. And this theory allows us to infer that the heat of the solar disc is fed by a hail of meteors falling incessantly on its surface. They have even calculated - " "Oh, dear !" murmured Michel, "the figures are coming."

Jules Verne
Either my calculation is correct, or there is no truth in figures.

Jules Verne
Oysters are the only food that never causes indigestion. Indeed, a man would have to eat sixteen dozen of these acephalous molluscs in order to gain the 315 grammes of nitrogen he requires daily.

Jules Verne
It is easily worked; it is widely spread in nature, alumina forming the bases of most rocks; it is three times lighter than iron; in short, it seems to have been created expressly to furnish material for our projectile!

Jules Verne
His imagination is a perfect volcano, and to make discoveries in the interest of geology he would sacrifice his life.

Jules Verne
Descend into the crater of Yocul of Sneffels, which the shade of Scartaris caresses, before the kalends of July, audacious traveler, and you will reach the center of the earth. I did it.

Jules Verne
Our worthy engineer belonged to that class of men whose brain is always on the boil, like a kettle on a hot fire. In some of these brain kettles the ideas bubble over, in others they just simmer quietly.

Jules Verne
Was I to believe him in earnest in his intention to penetrate to the centre of this massive globe? Had I been listening to the mad speculations of a lunatic, or to the scientific conclusions of a lofty genius? Where did truth stop? Where did error begin?

Jules Verne
Therever fortune clears a way, thither our ready footsteps stray.

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

Jules Verne
Ah, monsieur, to live in the bosom of the sea! Only there can independence be found! There I recognize no master! There I am free!

Jules Verne
Powder is but a thing of yesterday, and war is as old as the human race--unhappily.

Jules Verne
You are going to visit [talking of under the ocean] the fairyland of marvels.

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 truth, I was simply in the presence of a very ordinary product of the earth, of singular and gigantic proportions. My uncle unhesitatingly called them by their real names. "It is only," he said, in his coolest manner, "a forest of mushrooms."

Jules Verne
But to find, all at once, right before your eyes, that the impossible had been mysteriously achieved by man himself: this staggers the mind!

Jules Verne
As for seeing the town, he did not even think of it, being of that breed of Britons who have their servants do their sightseeing for them.

Jules Verne
The Earth does not want new continents, but new men.

Jules Verne
While his heart still beats, while his flesh still moves, I cannot accept that a being endowed with will-power can give in to despair.

Jules Verne
As for the Yankees, they have no other ambition than to take possession of this new continent [the moon], and to plant upon the summit of its highest elevation the star-spangled banner of the United States.

Jules Verne
In the first place... you must keep the whole affair a profound secret. There is no more envious race of men than scientific discoverers. Many would start on the same journey. At all events, we will be the first in the field.

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

Jules Verne
External objects produce decided effects upon the brain. A man shut up between four walls soon loses the power to associate words and ideas together. How many prisoners in solitary confinement become idiots, if not mad, for want of exercise for the thinking faculty!

Jules Verne
The Great Architect of the universe built it of good firm stuff.

Jules Verne
Solitude, isolation, are painful things, and beyond human endurance.

Jules Verne