"We were alone. Where, I could not say, hardly imagine. All was black, and such a dense black that, after some minutes, my eyes had not been able to discern even the faintest glimmer."

"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 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?"

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

"I was a queen, and you took away my crown a wife, and you killed my husband a mother, and you deprived me of my children. My blood alone remains: take it, but do not make me suffer long."

"It's not the last one. Five's out, six is coming out in November, that's a single chapter, and then seven is the big horrifying one. And I think a couple after that to wrap the thing up."

"The radiation left over from the Big Bang is the same as that in your microwave oven but very much less powerful. It would heat your pizza only to minus 271.3*C - not much good for defrosting the pizza, let alone cooking it."

"As regards parents, I should like to see them as highly educated as possible, and I do not restrict this remark to fathers alone."