It is to be remarked that a good many people are born curiously unfitted for the fate waiting them on this earth.

She feared the unknown as we all do, and her ignorance made the unknown infinitely vast.

My task which I am trying to achieve is, by the power of the written word, to make you hear, to make you feel — it is, before all, to make you see. That — and no more, and it is everything. If I succeed, you shall find there according to your deserts: encouragement, consolation, fear, charm — all you demand; and, perhaps, also that glimpse of truth for which you have forgotten to ask.

I do not know whether I have been a good seaman, but I know I have been a very faithful one.

The conquest of the earth... is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much. What redeems it is the idea only... not a sentimental pretence but an idea.

It is the mark of an inexperienced man not to believe in luck.

I remember my youth... the feeling that I could last forever, outlast the sea, the earth, and all men.