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To describe my despair would be impossible. No words could tell it. I was buried alive, with the prospect before me of dying of hunger and thirst.

— Jules Verne Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864)

Je ne puis peindre mon désespoir; nul mot de la langue humaine ne rendrait mes sentiments. J’étais enterré vif, avec la perspective de mourir dans les tortures de la faim et de la soif.

Original text (French)

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Notes from Wikiquote

Ch. XXVII: Lost in the bowels of the earth

More quotes by Jules Verne

While his heart still beats, while his flesh still moves, I cannot accept that a being endowed with will-power can give in to despair.

Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864)

What good would it be to discuss such a proposition, when force could destroy the best arguments?

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1870)

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

The Mysterious Island (1874)

Science, my lad, has been built upon many errors; but they are errors which it was good to fall into, for they led to the truth.

Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864)

Civilization never recedes; the law of necessity ever forces it onwards.

The Mysterious Island (1874)

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Attribution

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.