We may brave human laws, but we cannot resist natural ones.
There are no impossible obstacles; there are just stronger and weaker wills, that’s all!
We are of opinion that instead of letting books grow moldy behind an iron grating, far from the vulgar gaze, it is better to let them wear out by being read.
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 believe cats to be spirits come to earth. A cat, I am sure, could walk on a cloud without coming through.
Look with all your eyes, look.
Though sleep is called our best friend, it is a friend who often keeps us waiting!
We were alone. Where, I could not say, hardly imagine. All was black, and such a dense black that, after some minutes, my eyes had not been able to discern even the faintest glimmer.
On the surface of the ocean, men wage war and destroy each other; but down here, just a few feet beneath the surface, there is a calm and peace, unmolested by man.
Travel enables us to enrich our lives with new experiences, to enjoy and to be educated, to learn respect for foreign cultures, to establish friendships, and above all to contribute to international cooperation and peace throughout the world.
Before all masters, necessity is the one most listened to, and who teaches the best.
The earth does not need new continents, but new men.
We now know most things that can be measured in this world, except the bounds of human ambition!
Civilization never recedes; the law of necessity ever forces it onwards.
Man is so constituted that health is a purely negative state. Hunger once satisfied, it is difficult for a man to imagine the horrors of starvation; they cannot be understood without being felt.
The distance between the earth and her satellite is a mere trifle, and undeserving of serious consideration. I am convinced that before twenty years are over one-half of our earth will have paid a visit to the moon.
What I’d like to be above all is a writer...
Better to put things at the worst at first and reserve the best for a surprise.
The wisest man may be a blind father.
Whatever one man is capable of imagining, other men will prove themselves capable of realizing.