“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.”

Why lower oneself to taking pride from being American or British, when you can boast of being man!

Science, my boy, is composed of errors, but errors that it is right to make, for they lead step by step to the truth.

In the memory of the dead all chronological differences are effaced.

What I’d like to be above all is a writer.

The Nautilus was piercing the water with its sharp spur, after having accomplished nearly ten thousand leagues in three months and a half, a distance greater than the great circle of the earth. Where were we going now, and what was reserved for the future?

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

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.

The human mind delights in grand conceptions of supernatural beings.

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.

All great actions return to God, from whom they are derived.

Powder is but a thing of yesterday, and war is as old as the human race-unhappily.

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.

To wisely live your life, you don’t need to know much just remember two main rules for the beginning: You better starve, than eat whatever And better be alone, than with whoever.

There’s no better feeling than realizing you no longer reside in the same realm you used to. Growth is so beautiful.

Whoever plays well on a given day, that player wins.

I think I’m like wine. The older I get, the better I get.

Tennis has never been the most important thing in my life. My family, my health, my happiness they are more important to me. On court, I want to win. Off court, I want to be a better person. Tennis is a path to my future.

It is better to die than to preserve this life by incurring disgrace. The loss of life causes but a moment’s grief, but disgrace brings grief every day of one’s life.

It is best to live with honor for just a day than with dishonor for many decades; better a short lived celestial swan than a century-lived crow.

I heard endless conversations between my parents when I was going to sleep about how we would survive, how we would continue. All of them were about trying to make me better.