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

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

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

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?

Well, I feel that we should always put a little art into what we do. It’s better that way.

While there is life there is hope. I beg to assert…that 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.

I say, you do have a heart!” “Sometimes,” he replied, “when I have the time.

I wanted to see what no one had yet observed, even if I had to pay for this curiosity with my life.

An energetic man will succeed where an indolent one would vegetate and inevitably perish.

Whatever one man is capable of imagining, other men will prove themselves capable of realizing.

What pen can describe this scene of marvellous horror; what pencil can portray it?

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.

Anything a man can imagine, another can create.

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

It’s really useful to travel, if you want to see new things.

Though sleep is called our best friend, it is a friend who often keeps us waiting!

Man is never perfect nor contented.

We must trust to nothing but facts: These are presented to us by Nature, and cannot deceive. We ought, in every instance, to submit our reasoning to the test of experiment, and never to search for truth but by the natural road of experiment and observation.

The ultimate aim of the modern movement in biology is in fact to explain all biology in terms of physics and chemistry.

Scientific knowledge scarcely exists amongst the higher classes of society. The discussion in the Houses of Lords or of Commons, which arise on the occurrence of any subjects connected with science, sufficiently prove this fact.

When you have the facts on your side, argue the facts. When you have the law on your side, argue the law. When you have neither, holler.

Imagination, on the contrary, which is ever wandering beyond the bounds of truth, joined to self-love and that self-confidence we are so apt to indulge, prompt us to draw conclusions which are not immediately derived from facts.

The fact that everybody in the world dreams every night ties all mankind together.

Surely the fact that a uniformed police officer is wearing his hair below his collar will make him no less identifiable as a policeman.

Facts are true whether or not you believe them.