I would have bartered a diamond mine for a glass of pure spring water!
Notes from Wikiquote
This sentence, like many others in the Griffin and Farran translation of the book, has no source in the original French text.
What good would it be to discuss such a proposition, when force could destroy the best arguments?
An energetic man will succeed where an indolent one would vegetate and inevitably perish.
Civilization never recedes; the law of necessity ever forces it onwards.
Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Jules Verne (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.