Jules Verne Quotes

“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, Journey to the Center of the Earth

“In the meantime, there is not an hour to lose. I am about to visit the public library.”
― Jules Verne, Journey to the Center of the Earth

“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

“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. Between Barbicane's proposition and its realization no true Yankee would have allowed even the semblance of a difficulty to be possible. A thing with them is no sooner said than done.”
― Jules Verne, From the Earth to the Moon

“Il n'y a pas d'obstacles impossibles; il y a des volontés simplement plus forts et les plus faibles, voilà tout!”
― Jules Verne, The Adventures of Captain Hatteras

“The professor pointed out how he could drop a keel and a propeller into the water, in case he came down at sea, and after cutting the gas bag loose he'd have a seaworthy boat. He had everything on board for survival at sea, including fancy fishing gear, flares and weather balloons for distress signals, and both shortwave radio equipment and a low-frequency system for round-the-world communications.
"Boy! This is somethin' right out of Jules Verne...only better, maybe," said Homer.
You are right, Mr. Snodgrass," said the professor. "It is ze only way to travel. You don't go so fast, but it beats swimming! Yes? And we have everysing for safety and comfort at sea, if we have to come down. Ze only thing we have to worry about is piranhas. Oh, zey are terrible! Zey will eat everysing in sight!"
"Piranhas?" Homer gasped. "I thought they were only found in South American Rivers?"
"Oh?" said the professor. "Do ze piranhas know zat, Mr. Snodgrass?”
― Bertrand R. Brinley, The Big Chunk of Ice: The Last Known Adventure of the Mad Scientists' Club

“Now air consists principally of twenty-one parts of oxygen and seventy-nine of nitrogen. The lungs absorb the oxygen, which is indispensable for the support of life, and reject the nitrogen. The air expired loses nearly five per cent. of the former and contains nearly an equal volume of carbonic acid, produced by the combustion of the elements of the blood. In an air-tight enclosure, then, after a certain time, all the oxygen of the air will be replaced by the carbonic acid— a gas fatal to life. There were two things to be done then— first, to replace the absorbed oxygen; secondly, to destroy the expired carbonic acid; both easy enough to do, by means of chlorate of potassium and caustic potash. The former is a salt which appears under the form of white crystals; when raised to a temperature of 400 degrees it is transformed into chlorure of potassium, and the oxygen which it contains is entirely liberated. Now twenty-eight pounds of chlorate of potassium produces seven pounds of oxygen, or 2,400 liters— the quantity necessary for the travelers during twenty-four hours.”
― Jules Verne, From the Earth to the Moon

“They had to raise enormous stones, massive pieces of wrought iron, heavy corner-clamps and huge portions of cylinder, with an object-glass weighing nearly 30,000 pounds, above the line of perpetual snow for more than 10,000 feet in height, after crossing desert prairies, impenetrable forests, fearful rapids, far from all centers of population, and in the midst of savage regions, in which every detail of life becomes an almost insoluble problem. And yet, notwithstanding these innumerable obstacles, American genius triumphed.”
― Jules Verne, From the Earth to the Moon

“All the facts are united by a mysterious chain.”
― Jules Verne

“A great convulsion of the earth, or at least our American corner of it. Isn't that what we have all lived through?”
― Laura van den Berg, Find Me