Dinner was ready. Professor Lidenbrock did full justice to it, for his compulsory fast on board had turned his stomach into an unfathomable gulf.

The human mind delights in grand conceptions of supernatural beings.

He believed in it, as certain good women believe in the leviathan-by faith, not by reason.

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

Wherever he saw a hole he always wanted to know the depth of it. To him this was important.

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

An English criminal, you know is always better concealed in London than anywhere else.