Cornelia > Cornelia's Quotes

“There have been great societies that did not use the wheel, but there have been no societies that did not tell stories.”
― ursula le guin

“All the best stories in the world are but one story in reality, the story of escape. It is the only thing which interests us all and at all times, how to escape.”
― Arthur Christopher Benson

“There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them.”
― Joseph Brodsky

“I tell you all the time, you will never be able to replace me with a brass and steam contraption.”
― Maeve Alpin, As Timeless As Stone

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

“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.”
― Jules Verne, Journey to the Center of the Earth

“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 established his dominion, and this it is which justifies it, over all the world.”
― Jules Verne, The Mysterious Island

“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 solitude equal to this, never had any living being been so utterly forsaken.”
― Jules Verne, Journey to the Center of the Earth

“At Kiel, as elsewhere, a day goes by somehow or other.”
― Jules Verne, Journey to the Center of the Earth

“Dinner was ready. Professor Lidenbrock did full justice to it, for his compulsory fast on board had turned his stomach into an unfathomable gulf.”
― Jules Verne, Journey to the Center of the Earth

“Is the Master out of his mind?' she asked me.
I nodded.
'And he's taking you with him?'
I nodded again.
'Where?' she asked.
I pointed towards the centre of the earth.
'Into the cellar?' exclaimed the old servant.
'No,' I said, 'farther down than that.”
― Jules Verne, Journey to the Center of the Earth

“Basta! Quando a ciência se manifesta, não há outra coisa senão calar-se.”
― Jules Verne

“O homem que nasceu para ir à forca, jamais morrerá afogado!”
― Jules Verne

“Adieu, soleil ! s'écria-t-il. Disparais, astre radieux ! Couche-toi sous cette mer libre, et laisse une nuit de six mois étendre ses ombres sur mon nouveau domaine !”
― Jules Verne, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

“It is certain," exclaimed my uncle in a tone of triumph. "But silence, do you hear me? silence upon the whole subject; and let no one get before us in this design of discovering the centre of the earth.”
― Jules Verne, Journey to the Center of the Earth

“Ah!" I cried, springing up. "But no! no! My uncle shall never know it. He would insist upon doing it too. He would want to know all about it. Ropes could not hold him, such a determined geologist as he is! He would start, he would, in spite of everything and everybody, and he would take me with him, and we should never get back. No, never! never!"

My over-excitement was beyond all description.”
― Jules Verne, Journey to the Center of the Earth

“To the sheepfold!”
― Jules Verne, The Mysterious Island

“It was obvious that the matter had to be settled, and evasions were distasteful to me.”
― Jules Verne, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea

“In lighthearted countries, people joked about this phenomenon, but such serious, practical countries as England, America, and Germany were deeply concerned.”
― Jules Verne

“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 on every hand. It is the physical embodiment of a supernatural existence... For the sea is itself nothing but love and emotion. It is the Living Infinite, as one of your poets has said. Nature manifests herself in it, with her three kingdoms: mineral, vegetable, and animal. The ocean is the vast reservoir of Nature.”
― Jules Verne, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea

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

“A true Englishman doesn't joke when he is talking about so serious a thing as a wager.”
― Jules Verne, Around the World in Eighty Days

“Savages!' he echoed, ironically. 'You set foot on one of the shores of this globe, professor, and you’re surprised to find savages? Where aren’t there savages? Besides, are they any worse than others, these whom you call savages?”
― Jules Verne

“Biology gives you a brain. Life turns it into a mind.”
― Jeffrey Eugenides, Middlesex

“I hadn't gotten old enough yet to realize that living sends a person not into the future but back into the past, to childhood and before birth, finally, to commune with the dead. You get older, you puff on the stairs, you enter the body of your father. From there it's only a quick jump to your grandparents, and then before you know it you're time traveling. In this life we grow backwards.”
― Jeffrey Eugenides, Middlesex

“That’s how people live, by telling stories. What’s the first thing a kid says when he learns how to talk? “Tell me a story.” That’s how we understand who we are, where we come from. Stories are everything.”
― Jeffrey Eugenides

“Creff, my factotum, interrupted the breakfast he had brought me only a few minutes earlier and announced that a crazed Ethiope was at the door, presumably to buy a watch.”
― K.W. Jeter, Infernal Devices

“He turned away from me, the better to hide the exclamation of annoyance which he muttered under his breath; I caught only what seemed to be the syllable cog (perhaps a reference to my mechanical trade) and the word succour (a prayer for divine assistance?).”
― K.W. Jeter, Infernal Devices

“A dagger is the noble weapon of Brutus. Everyone understands that tyrants fall to daggers. A bomb is a sordid modern device with many complex working parts. Only engineers understand bombs”
― Bruce Sterling, The Parthenopean Scalpel

“Steampunk is...a joyous fantasy of the past, allowing us to revel in a nostalgia for what never was. It is a literary playground for adventure, spectacle, drama, escapism and exploration. But most of all it is fun!”
― George Mann