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"Better to put things at the worst at first," replied the engineer, "and reserve the best for a surprise."

— Jules Verne The Mysterious Island (1874)

Mieux vaut mettre les choses au pis tout de suite, répondit l’ingénieur, et ne se réserver que la surprise du mieux.

Original text (French)

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Notes from Wikiquote

Part I, ch. IX

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.

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

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

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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.

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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.