I see that it is by no means useless to travel, if a man wants to see something new

Scent is the soul of flowers, and sea flowers, as splendid as they may be, have no soul!

I have always fancied that the end of the world will be when some enormous boiler, heated to three thousand millions of atmospheric pressure, shall explode and blow up the globe. ... They [the Americans] are great boilermakers.

Well, I thought I was so tranquil! I need to give up that illusion! There is decidedly no rest to be had in this world.

It's really useful to travel, if you want to see new things.

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

All that is impossible remains to be accomplished.