....oysters are the only food that never causes indigestion. Indeed, a man would have to eat sixteen dozen of these acephalous molluscs in order to gain the 315 grammes of nitrogen he requires daily.

In the memory of the dead all chronological differences are effaced.

Yes, I could see these enormous elephants, whose trunks were tearing down large boughs, and working in and out the trees like a legion of serpents. I could hear the sounds of the mighty tusks uprooting huge trees!

Science, my lad, has been built upon many errors; but they are errors which it was good to fall into, for they led to the truth.

When the mind once allows a doubt to gain entrance, the value of deeds performed grow less, their character changes, we forget the past and dread the future.

Civilization never recedes; the law of necessity ever forces it onwards.

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