Amiens, France…Jules Verne, 8 February 1828 – 24 March 1905. French author of Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864), Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas (1870), and Around the World in Eighty Days (1872) & much more.

“Nothing can astound an American. It has often been asserted that the word ‘impossible’ is not a French one. People have evidently been deceived by the dictionary. In America, all is easy, all is simple; and as for mechanical difficulties, they are overcome before they arise.”

“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.”

“‘Movement is life;’ and it is well to be able to forget the past, and kill the present by continual change.”

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

“With happiness as with health: to enjoy it, one should be deprived of it occasionally.”

“Before all masters, necessity is the one most listened to, and who teaches the best.”