All that is impossible remains to be accomplished.

I looked on, I thought, I reflected, I admired, in a state of stupefaction not altogether unmingled with fear!

The colonists had no library at their disposal; but the engineer was a book which was always at hand, always open at the page which one wanted, a book which answered all their questions, and which they often consulted.

Before all masters, necessity is the one most listened to, and who teaches the best.

The human mind delights in grand conceptions of supernatural beings. And the sea is precisely their best vehicle, the only medium through which these giants (against which terrestrial animals, such as elephants or rhinoceroses, are as nothing) can be produced or developed

He must have travelled everywhere, at least in the spirit.

Savages!' he echoed, ironically. 'You set foot on one of the shores of this globe, professor, and you’re surprised to find savages? Where aren’t there savages? Besides, are they any worse than others, these whom you call savages?