"Better to put things at the worst first,...and reserve the best for a surprise."

“He who is mistaken in an action which he sincerely believes to be right may be an enemy, but retains our esteem.”

“It is a great misfortune to be alone, my friends; and it must be believed that solitude can quickly destroy reason.”

“Superior force can demolish the best of arguments.”

“Yes, but water decomposed into its primitive elements... and decomposed doubtless, by electricity, which will then have become a powerful and manageable force, for all great discoveries, by some inexplicable law, appear to agree and become complete at the same time. Yes, my friends, I believe that water will one day be employed as fuel, that hydrogen and oxygen which constitute it, used singly or together, will furnish an inexhaustible source of heat and light, of an intensity of which coal is not capable. Some day the coalrooms of steamers and the tenders of locomotives will, instead of coal, be stored with these two condensed gases, which will burn in the furnaces with enormous calorific power. There is, therefore, nothing to fear. As long as the earth is inhabited it will supply the wants of its inhabitants, and there will be no want of either light or heat as long as the productions of the vegetable, mineral or animal kingdoms do not fail us. I believe, then, that when the deposits of coal are exhausted we shall heat and warm ourselves with water. Water will be the coal of the future!”

“Jules Verne at French Wikisource”

“What a big book might be made with all that is known. And what a much bigger book still with all that is not.”