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

As long as the heart beats, as long as body and soul keep together, I cannot admit that any creature endowed with a will has need to despair of life.

I had no need of sails to drive me, nor oars nor wheels to push me, nor rails to give me a faster road. Air is what I wanted, that was all. Air surrounds me as water surrounds the submarine boat, and in it my propellers act like the screws of a steamer. That is how I solved the problem of aviation. That is what a balloon will never do, nor will any machine that is lighter than air.

What pen can describe this scene of marvellous horror; what pencil can portray it?

What I'd like to be above all is a writer.

However, everything has an end, everything passes away, even the hunger of people who have not eaten

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?