I have noticed that many who do not believe in God believe in everything else, even in the evil eye.

Is not a woman’s heart unfathomable?

There is no more sagacious animal than the Icelandic horse. He is stopped by neither snow, nor storm, nor impassable roads, nor rocks, glaciers, or anything. He is courageous, sober, and surefooted. He never makes...

The sea is only the embodiment of a supernatural and wonderful existence.

Man is never perfect nor contented.

Far better to be the simplest pedestrian, with knapsack on back, stick in hand, and gun on shoulder, than an Indian prince travelling with all the ceremonial which his rank requires.

Steam seems to have killed all gratitude in the hearts of sailors.

Be it understood you are never rich when you get no advantage from it.

As long as a man’s heart beats, as long as a man’s flesh quivers, I do not allow that a being gifted with thought and will can allow himself to despair.

The sea is everything. It covers seven tenths of the terrestrial globe. Its breath is pure and healthy. It is an immense desert, where man is never lonely, for he feels life stirring on all...

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

It is for others one must learn to do everything; for there lies the secret of happiness.

It is better for us to see the destination we wish to reach, than the point of departure

The sea is the vast reservoir of Nature. The globe began with sea, so to speak; and who knows if it will not end with it?

One’s native land! There should one live! There die!

The Chinaman has only a passive courage, but this courage he possesses in the highest degree. His indifference to death is truly extraordinary. When he is ill, he sees it approach, and does not falter....

When I returned to partial life my face was wet with tears. How long that state of insensibility had lasted I cannot say. I had no means now of taking account of time. Never was...

Everything is possible for an eccentric, especially when he is English.

It is always a vulgar and often an unhealthy pastime, and it is a vice which does not go alone; the man who gambles will find himself capable of any evil.

In spite of the opinions of certain narrow-minded people, who would shut up the human race upon this globe, as within some magic circle it must never outstep, we shall one day travel to the...

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

It must be that a man who shuts himself up between four walls must lose the faculty of associating ideas and words.

In the course of time, Michael Strogoff reached a high station in the Empire. But it is not the history of his success, but the history of his trials, which deserves to be related.

A man of merit owes himself to the homage of the rest of mankind who recognize his worth.

Put two Yankees in a room together, and in an hour they will each have gained ten dollars from the other.

The regions of the North Pole situated within the eighty-fourth degree of north latitude have not yet been utilized, for the very good reason that they have not yet been discovered.

I believe cats to be spirits come to earth. A cat, I am sure, could walk on a cloud without coming through.

It is said that the night brings counsel, but it is not said that the counsel is necessarily good.

Now, when an American has an idea, he directly seeks a second American to share it. If there be three, they elect a president and two secretaries. Given four, they name a keeper of records,...

Trains, like time and tide, stop for no one.

If Providence has created the stars and the planets, man has called the cannonball into existence.

One has only to follow events, and you will be all right. The surest way is to take whatever comes as it comes.

Mientras el corazón lata y la carne palpite, no me explico que un ser dotado de voluntad se deje dominar por la desesperación.

Everybody knows that the great reversed triangle of land, with its base in the north and its apex in the south, which is called India, embraces fourteen hundred thousand square miles, upon which is spread...

The body regulates the soul, and, like the balance-wheel, it is submitted to regular oscillations.

To modify the conditions of the Earth’s movement is beyond the powers of man. It is not given to mankind to change the order established by the Creator in the system of the Universe.

We may brave human laws, but we cannot resist natural ones.

You cannot oppose reasoning to pride, the principal of all the vices, since, by its very nature, the proud man refuses to listen to it.

Numerous observations made upon fevers, somnambulisms, and other human maladies, seem to prove that the moon does exercise some mysterious influence upon man.

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.

A true Englishman doesn’t joke when he is talking about so serious a thing as a wager.

The industrial stomach cannot live without coal; industry is a carbonivorous animal and must have its proper food.

The sea is everything. It covers seven-tenths of the terrestrial globe. Its breath is pure and life-giving. It is an immense desert place where man is never lonely, for he senses the weaving of Creation...

I seriously believed that my last hour was approaching, and yet, so strange is imagination, all I thought of was some childish hypothesis or other. In such circumstances, you do not choose your own thoughts....

When science has sent forth her fiat – it is only to hear and obey.

To put up with what you cannot avoid is a philosophical principle, that may not perhaps lead you to the accomplishment of great deeds, but is assuredly eminently practical.

If there were no thunder, men would have little fear of lightning.

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.

So is man’s heart. The desire to perform a work which will endure, which will survive him, is the origin of his superiority over all other living creatures here below. It is this which has...

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