Quotes from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea

Jules Verne ·  394 pages

Rating: (158.4K votes)


“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 sides. The sea is only the embodiment of a supernatural and wonderful existence. It is nothing but love and emotion; it is the Living Infinite. ”
― Jules Verne, quote from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea


“We may brave human laws, but we cannot resist natural ones.”
― Jules Verne, quote from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea


“If there were no thunder, men would have little fear of lightning.”
― Jules Verne, quote from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea


“The human mind delights in grand conceptions of supernatural beings.”
― Jules Verne, quote from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea


“Aures habent et non audient` - `They have ears but hear not”
― Jules Verne, quote from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea



“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, quote from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea


“The earth does not want new continents, but new men.”
― Jules Verne, quote from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea


“Nature's creative power is far beyond man's instinct of destruction.”
― Jules Verne, quote from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea


“Steam seems to have killed all gratitude in the hearts of sailors.”
― Jules Verne, quote from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea


“Your dead sleep quietly, at least, Captain, out of reach of sharks" "Yes, sir, of sharks and men.”
― Jules Verne, quote from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea



“If his destiny be strange, it is also sublime.”
― Jules Verne, quote from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea


“What use are the best of arguments when they can be destroyed by force?”
― Jules Verne, quote from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea


“The sea is only the embodiment of a supernatural and wonderful existence. It is nothing but love and emotion; it is the 'Living Infinite'...The globe began with sea, so to speak; and who knows if it will not end with it? In it is supreme tranquility.”
― Jules Verne, quote from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea


“No sir, it is evidently a gigantic narwhal”
― Jules Verne, quote from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea


“Oh, figures!' answered Ned. 'You can make figures do whatever you want.”
― Jules Verne, quote from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea



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


“However, everything has an end, everything passes away, even the hunger of people who have not eaten”
― Jules Verne, quote from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea


“Perfume is the soul of the flower, and sea-flowers have no soul.”
― Jules Verne, quote from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea


“With its untold depths, couldn't the sea keep alive such huge specimens of life from another age, this sea that never changes while the land masses undergo almost continuous alteration? Couldn't the heart of the ocean hide the last–remaining varieties of these titanic species, for whom years are centuries and centuries millennia?”
― Jules Verne, quote from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea


“I ask no more than to live a hundred years longer, that I may have more time to dwell the longer on your memory.”
― Jules Verne, quote from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea



“I am not what you call a civilised man! I have done with society entirely, for reasons which I alone have the right of appreciating. I do not, therefore, obey its laws, and I desire you never to allude to them before me again!”
― Jules Verne, quote from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea


“Captain Nemo pointed to this prodigious heap of shellfish, and I saw that these mines were genuinely inexhaustible, since nature's creative powers are greater than man's destructive instincts.”
― Jules Verne, quote from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea


“Conseil: If that is the case, this dugong may well be the last of its race, and perhaps it would be better to spare it, in the interest of science.
Ned Land: Perhaps it will be better to hunt it, in the interest of the kitchen.”
― Jules Verne, quote from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea


“God, if he believed in Him, and his conscience, if he had one, were the only judges to whom he was answerable.”
― Jules Verne, quote from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea


“There is the disadvantage of not knowing all languages," said Conseil, "or the disadvantage of not having one universal language.”
― Jules Verne, quote from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea



“It was marvellous, a feast for the eyes, this complication of coloured tints, a perfect kaleidoscope of green, yellow, orange, violet, indigo, and blue; in one word, the whole palette of an enthusiastic colourist!”
― Jules Verne, quote from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea


“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, quote from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea


“Sir," replied the commander, "I am nothing to you but Captain Nemo; and you and your companions are nothing to me but the passengers of the Nautilus.”
― Jules Verne, quote from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea


About the author

Jules Verne
Born place: in Nantes, Kingdom of France
Born date February 8, 1828
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“He gathered me closer, kissed my neck, then spoke in a low voice next to my ear. “I figure, see, if you find yourself getting more attached to the two of us than you planned, maybe you won’t think about picking up and leaving to start another life somewhere else.”
― Jenn Bennett, quote from Kindling the Moon


“In a free society, we do not imprison those who violate profound cultural taboos or burn them at the stake. But they must be identified as dangerous radicals, not fit to be counted among the priesthood. The reaction is appropriate. To raise the dread question is to open the possibility that the institutions responsible “for the indoctrination of the young” and the other propaganda institutions may be infected by the most dangerous of plagues: insight and understanding. Awareness of the facts might threaten the social order, protected by a carefully spun web of pluralist mysticism, faith in the benevolence of our pure-hearted leadership, and general superstitious belief. An”
― Noam Chomsky, quote from The Essential Chomsky


“Once Lotari reached his mate's side and gently kissed her hand, the crowd began cheering and whooping for them.
Bastion the dwarf appeared beside Stitch, a handkerchief extended. "Ye blubbering hoofer. Best keep that with you tonight, I doubt this'll be the first tears you'll be a shedding."
Stitch took the cloth and dabbed at his cheeks. "Glad to see you here, Bast."
"Never miss a hoofer gathering. There's always meat and grog. Who in their right mind turns a nose up to such a fare, eh?”
― Jackie Castle, quote from Emanate


“I liked the sound of that. A true plant person. It sounded so much more alive, and warmer than a true advertising person.”
― Margot Berwin, quote from Hothouse Flower and the Nine Plants of Desire


“...you're going to have to face this. You can't let other people decide your life for you...Other people's judgement doesn't have any power unless you offer yourself up for trial, so don't.”
― Lisa Wingate, quote from The Prayer Box


Interesting books

Turned
(11.6K)
Turned
by Morgan Rice
Sought
(7.2K)
Sought
by Evangeline Anderson
Climbing the Stairs
(2.7K)
Climbing the Stairs
by Padma Venkatraman
The Day I Stopped Drinking Milk
(2.4K)
The Day I Stopped Dr...
by Sudha Murty
War for the Oaks
(8.9K)
War for the Oaks
by Emma Bull
Cymbeline
(5.9K)
Cymbeline
by William Shakespeare

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.