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

Reality provides us with facts so romantic that imagination itself could add nothing to them.

I have been, am, in his service; I have seen his generosity and goodness; and I will never betray him-not for all the gold in the world. I have come from a village where they don't eat that kind of bread.

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

Solitude, isolation, are painful things, and beyond human endurance.

Science, my lad, is made up of mistakes, but they are mistakes which it is useful to make, because they lead little by little to the truth.

What one man can think, another man can do.