{
  "schemaVersion": 1,
  "slug": "a-journey-to-the-centre-of-the-earth-pg18857",
  "title": "A Journey to the Centre of the Earth",
  "quotes": [
    {
      "text": "To bear with him means to\nobey"
    },
    {
      "text": "he studied, he consumed the midnight oil, he pored over heavy\ntomes, and digested huge quartos and folios in order to keep the\nknowledge acquired to himself"
    },
    {
      "text": "he was a perfect polyglot\ndictionary in himself"
    },
    {
      "text": "He was not usually so blind\nto the pleasure of a good dinner"
    },
    {
      "text": "Until I\ndiscover the meaning of this sentence I will neither eat nor sleep"
    },
    {
      "text": "There are words\nwhich are composed wholly of consonants, such as mm.rnlls, others\nwhich are nearly all vowels"
    },
    {
      "text": "Probably we shall find that the phrase is arranged according to some\nmathematical plan"
    },
    {
      "text": "Imagine my surprise when glancing at the back of the wearisome puzzle,\nthe ink having gone through, I clearly made out Latin words"
    },
    {
      "text": "No living being should ever know."
    },
    {
      "text": "To reveal it would be suicidal. He would\nnot only rush, himself, to destruction, but drag me with him."
    },
    {
      "text": "Neither you nor anybody else know anything about the real state of the\nearth's interior."
    },
    {
      "text": "The very reason why you should go up. I want to cure you of a bad\nhabit."
    },
    {
      "text": "My flesh\ncrawled as it became probable that he would discover the secret."
    },
    {
      "text": "But in the cause of science men are expected to suffer."
    },
    {
      "text": "The fact\nis, the castle is much later than the time of the heroic prince of\nDenmark."
    },
    {
      "text": "The books of our library are\ntherefore passed from hand to hand without returning to the library\nshelves perhaps for years."
    },
    {
      "text": "Because Arne Saknussemm was persecuted for heresy, and in 1573 his\nworks were publicly burnt at Copenhagen, by the hands of the common\nhangman."
    },
    {
      "text": "He is\nlike a farmer who has neither to plow, to sow, nor to harrow, only to\ncollect his harvest."
    },
    {
      "text": "This economy of motion was carried to the length\nof avarice."
    },
    {
      "text": "He knew\nevery inch of that part of the coast, and promised to take us the very\nshortest way."
    },
    {
      "text": "the money was to be paid to\nhim every Saturday night, failing which, his engagement was at an end."
    },
    {
      "text": "He moves\nso little that it is impossible for him to become fatigued."
    },
    {
      "text": "I had not the slightest reliance upon them,\nas a means of crossing a stormy arm of the sea. To ride over salt water\nupon the back of a little horse seemed to me absurd."
    },
    {
      "text": "The favorable moment did not come until six o'clock in the evening. Then\nmy uncle, myself, and guide, two boatmen and the four horses got into a\nvery awkward flat-bottom boat."
    },
    {
      "text": "in Iceland, during the months of June and July,\nthe sun never sets."
    },
    {
      "text": "The bedding was composed of dry hay thrown into two long red wooden\nboxes, ornamented with sentences painted in Icelandic."
    },
    {
      "text": "If a road does\nreally present itself by which to descend into the dark and\nsubterraneous bowels of Mother Earth, if this thrice unhappy Saknussemm\nhas really told the truth, we shall be most certainly lost in the midst\nof the labyrinth of subterraneous galleries of the volcano."
    },
    {
      "text": "Because the monster\nhas slept soundly since 1219, does it follow that he is never to wake?"
    },
    {
      "text": "At the approach\nof an eruption these spouts of vapor redouble their activity—to\ndisappear altogether during the period of volcanic eruption; for the\nelastic fluids, no longer having the necessary tension, seek refuge in\nthe interior of the crater, instead of escaping through the fissures of\nthe earth."
    },
    {
      "text": "When science has sent forth her fiat—it is only to\nhear and obey."
    },
    {
      "text": "Iceland, being absolutely without sedimentary soil, is composed\nexclusively of volcanic tufa; that is to say, of an agglomeration of\nstones and of rocks of a porous texture."
    },
    {
      "text": "All take their rise in the fierce action of interior\nfires, and to believe that the central mass did not remain in a state of\nliquid fire, white hot, was simply and purely madness."
    },
    {
      "text": "This mental lecture delivered to myself while proceeding on a journey,\ndid me good."
    },
    {
      "text": "The stones on the mountain side, held together by no cement of soil,\nbound together by no roots or creeping herbs, gave way continually under\nour feet, and went rushing below into the plains, like a series of small\navalanches."
    },
    {
      "text": "The wind was driving it directly towards that side of Sneffels on which\nwe were perched. This opaque veil standing up between us and the sun\nprojected a deep shadow on the flanks of the mountain."
    },
    {
      "text": "We were\nhappily a little out of the direction of the wind, and therefore out of\nreach of danger. But for the precaution and knowledge of our guide, our\ndislocated bodies, our crushed and broken limbs, would have been cast to\nthe wind, like dust from some unknown meteor."
    },
    {
      "text": "I wholly forgot who I was, and where I was. I became intoxicated with a\nsense of lofty sublimity, without thought of the abysses into which my\ndaring was soon about to plunge me."
    },
    {
      "text": "Involuntarily, I compared this crater to an enormous loaded cannon; and\nthe comparison completely terrified me."
    },
    {
      "text": "Of the three openings which yawned beneath our steps, only one could\nhave been followed by the adventurous Saknussemm. According to the words\nof the learned Icelander, it was only to be known by that one particular\nmentioned in the cryptograph, that the shadow of Scartaris fell upon it,\njust touching its mouth in the last days of the month of June."
    },
    {
      "text": "We were, in fact, to consider the pointed peak as the stylus of an\nimmense sun-dial, the shadow of which pointed on one given day, like the\ninexorable finger of fate, to the yawning chasm which led into the\ninterior of the earth."
    },
    {
      "text": "But if the heavens and the elements are capable of causing us much pain\nand sorrow, there are two sides to a medal. And there was reserved for\nProfessor Hardwigg a brilliant and sudden surprise which was to\ncompensate him for all his sufferings."
    },
    {
      "text": "There is nothing\nmore powerful than this attraction towards an abyss."
    },
    {
      "text": "I had not taken lessons enough at\nthe Frelser's-Kirk of Copenhagen in the art of looking down from lofty\neminences without blinking!"
    },
    {
      "text": "My uncle was not fond of half measures, nor did he like anything in the\nway of hesitation."
    },
    {
      "text": "we were\napproaching the regions of eternal night!"
    },
    {
      "text": "It was not even now quite dark, the light filtering down in a most\nextraordinary manner."
    },
    {
      "text": "The deduction I draw from this is very simple. According to the most\nexact observations, the augmentation of the temperature of the interior\nof the earth is one degree for every hundred feet."
    },
    {
      "text": "Either my calculation is correct, or there is no truth in figures."
    },
    {
      "text": "The descent of this obscure and narrow gallery was very gradual and\nwinding. Sometimes we gazed through a succession of arches, its course\nvery like the aisles of a Gothic cathedral."
    },
    {
      "text": "absolute solitude and complete security reigned supreme."
    },
    {
      "text": "I would have bartered a diamond mine for a glass of pure spring water!"
    },
    {
      "text": "I have taken care of it at the bottom of my bottle\nas the apple of my eye. Twenty times, a hundred times, I have resisted\nthe fearful desire to drink it. But—no—no, Harry, I saved it for you."
    },
    {
      "text": "The whole singular history of the coal period was written on those dark\nand gloomy walls."
    },
    {
      "text": "The earth had evidently been cast apart by some\nviolent subterranean commotion."
    },
    {
      "text": "What! Give up just as we are on the verge of success?"
    },
    {
      "text": "Never, never shall it be said that Professor Hardwigg retreated."
    },
    {
      "text": "When Christopher Columbus asked\nof his men three days to discover the land of promise, his men ill,\nterrified, and hopeless, yet gave him three days—and the New World was\ndiscovered."
    },
    {
      "text": "The\nnature of the rock makes this a mathematical certainty, and instinct\nagrees with logic to say that it is so."
    },
    {
      "text": "Such a process, simple as\nit seemed, would most certainly not have entered our heads."
    },
    {
      "text": "The water was scalding hot!"
    },
    {
      "text": "Well, then, let this water run. It will, of course, naturally follow in\nour track, and will serve to guide and refresh us."
    },
    {
      "text": "facts, as usual,\nare very stubborn things, overruling all theories."
    },
    {
      "text": "It is certain that the\ninanimate objects by which you are surrounded have a direct action on\nthe brain."
    },
    {
      "text": "How many persons\ncondemned to the horrors of solitary confinement have gone mad—simply\nbecause the thinking faculties have lain dormant!"
    },
    {
      "text": "I was\nliterally buried alive; with no other expectation before me but to die\nin all the slow horrible torture of hunger and thirst."
    },
    {
      "text": "It is my opinion that if your calculations are correct we are no longer\nunder Iceland."
    },
    {
      "text": "We were compelled every quarter of an hour or thereabouts to sit down in\norder to rest our legs. Our calves ached."
    },
    {
      "text": "The whole\nquestion rested on the solidity of the granite roof above us."
    },
    {
      "text": "I began in the newly aroused ardor of my soul\nto speak enthusiastically to the Professor. Well, was I serious? The\nwhole state in which we existed was a mystery—and it was impossible to\nknow whether or not I was in earnest."
    },
    {
      "text": "Lost! Lost!! LOST!!!"
    },
    {
      "text": "These thirty leagues of the crust of the earth weighed upon my shoulders\nlike the globe on the shoulders of Atlas."
    },
    {
      "text": "It\nwere better to give way wholly to despair!"
    },
    {
      "text": "Insensate folly and madness to entertain even a shadow of hope!"
    },
    {
      "text": "This renewal of my youthful faith brought about a much greater amount of\ncalm, and I was enabled to concentrate all my strength and intelligence\non the terrible realities of my unprecedented situation."
    },
    {
      "text": "The most\nimportant thing, then, to be done was to discover the bed of the\nHansbach."
    },
    {
      "text": "Lost in a vast labyrinth, the sinuosities of which spread in every\ndirection, without guide, clue or compass, I knew it was a vain and\nuseless task to attempt flight."
    },
    {
      "text": "In this place\nnothing—the absolute obscurity made me blind in every sense."
    },
    {
      "text": "I was perfectly ignorant of\nthe matter."
    },
    {
      "text": "Because I was alive, there was something left to do."
    },
    {
      "text": "The sound must come along the gallery itself. The place I was in must\npossess some peculiar acoustic properties of its own."
    },
    {
      "text": "Sound does not possess the property of traveling with such extreme\nrapidity."
    },
    {
      "text": "All I had to do was to follow the direction whence the sound\nhad reached me; and logically putting it, I must reach him if my\nstrength did not fail."
    },
    {
      "text": "I was first launched into a dark and gloomy void. I then struck against\nthe projecting asperities of a vertical gallery, a perfect well."
    },
    {
      "text": "let us take care never to\nseparate; for surely we should risk never meeting again."
    },
    {
      "text": "In truth, we were imprisoned—bound as it were, in a vast excavation."
    },
    {
      "text": "Not to admire is all the art I know,\n\nTo make man happy and to keep him so."
    },
    {
      "text": "We were the\nonly living creatures in this subterranean world!"
    },
    {
      "text": "Despite the great atmospheric\npressure down here, you will notice that this inland sea rises and falls\nwith as much regularity as the Atlantic itself."
    },
    {
      "text": "It\nis almost impossible to believe that which I see. Who in his wildest\ndreams could have imagined that, beneath the crust of our earth, there\ncould exist a real ocean, with ebbing and flowing tides, with its\nchanges of winds, and even its storms!"
    },
    {
      "text": "Man, even in his highest\nflights of vivid and poetic imagination, never thought of such things!"
    },
    {
      "text": "But there is no proof like\ndemonstration,"
    },
    {
      "text": "The fact was that my journey into the interior of the earth was rapidly\nchanging all preconceived notions, and day by day preparing me for the\nmarvelous."
    },
    {
      "text": "The whole panorama of the world's life before the historic period,\nseemed to be born over again, and mine was the only human heart that\nbeat in this unpeopled world!"
    },
    {
      "text": "the natural heat of the world increased unceasingly, and\nneutralized that of the great radiant Sun."
    },
    {
      "text": "I saw clearly that it had\nrequired all the influence of my danger and suffering, to extract from\nhim one scintillation of humane feeling."
    },
    {
      "text": "I came\ndown into the interior of the earth with an object, and that object I\nmean to attain. Don't talk to me about admiring scenery, or any other\nsentimental trash."
    },
    {
      "text": "To\nfly is, therefore, the course to be suggested by ordinary prudence. But\nwe have not come into that part of the world to be prudent."
    },
    {
      "text": "What\ncould be more ridiculous than to have taken an island for a marine\nmonster? But kick as one may, one must yield to evidence, and I was\nfinally convinced of my error."
    },
    {
      "text": "We shall, however, see what we shall see."
    },
    {
      "text": "It is the old story again of the mountain of adamant."
    },
    {
      "text": "We have not as yet\nreached the end of our journey."
    },
    {
      "text": "Once we reach the exact centre of this sphere, either we\nshall find a new road by which to ascend to the surface, or we shall\nsimply turn round and go back by the way we came."
    },
    {
      "text": "The wind carried the voice away."
    },
    {
      "text": "His countenance presents the extraordinary appearance of an antediluvian\nman, a true contemporary of the Megatherium."
    },
    {
      "text": "He was\nthe greatest human enigma I ever had known."
    },
    {
      "text": "I have an idea, my dear boy; it is none other than this simple fact; we\nshall not come out by the same opening as that by which we entered."
    },
    {
      "text": "It was useless attempting to conceal from ourselves the fatal truth."
    },
    {
      "text": "The terrible fatigues of our sea voyage, the fearful dangers we had\npassed through, had all, all, gone for nothing."
    },
    {
      "text": "I will not yield, I will not retreat even one\ninch; and we shall see who shall triumph in this great contest—man or\nnature."
    },
    {
      "text": "It is utterly useless\nto struggle against the impossible."
    },
    {
      "text": "Everything is subordinate to some great law of nature."
    },
    {
      "text": "On that spot, some three square miles in extent, was accumulated the\nwhole history of animal life—scarcely one creature upon the\ncomparatively modern soil of the upper and inhabited world had not there\nexisted."
    },
    {
      "text": "Fancy an enthusiastic lover of books carried suddenly into the very\nmidst of the famous library of Alexandria burned by the sacrilegious\nOmar, and which some miracle had restored to its pristine splendor!"
    },
    {
      "text": "Human instincts succumbed to scientific pride and exultation."
    },
    {
      "text": "There is\nthe body; you can see it; you can touch it. It is not a skeleton, it is\na complete and uninjured body, preserved with an anthropological\nobject."
    },
    {
      "text": "the continually cooling operation, through which the earth had to\npass, produced fissures, landslips, and chasms, through which a large\nportion of the earth made its way."
    },
    {
      "text": "The one thing wanting in these plants, these shrubs, these trees—was\ncolor! Forever deprived of the vivifying warmth of the sun, they were\nvapid and colorless."
    },
    {
      "text": "It was enough to drive the most ingenious\nclassifier of the upper regions out of his mind, and to upset all his\nreceived ideas about botany."
    },
    {
      "text": "No\nhuman being could by any possibility have existed in that subterranean\nworld! No generation of men could inhabit the lower caverns of the globe\nwithout taking note of those who peopled the surface, without\ncommunication with them."
    },
    {
      "text": "This\nblade of a dagger you have so marvelously discovered, after being\nabandoned upon the sand for more than a hundred, two hundred, even three\nhundred years, has been indented by someone endeavoring to carve an\ninscription on these rocks."
    },
    {
      "text": "Your name engraved at every important stage of your\nglorious journey leads the hopeful traveler direct to the great and\nmighty discovery to which you devoted such energy and courage."
    },
    {
      "text": "What matter! It is not our duty to explain facts, but to make the best\npossible use of them."
    },
    {
      "text": "all is for the best."
    },
    {
      "text": "The thing is to make a start."
    },
    {
      "text": "From this time forward, our reason, our judgment, our human ingenuity,\nhave nothing to do with the course of events."
    },
    {
      "text": "One chance in a thousand is always a chance, while death from hunger\ngave us not even the faintest glimpse of hope."
    },
    {
      "text": "I had the\ncourage to hold my tongue, to gnaw at my entrails like the Spartan boy."
    },
    {
      "text": "While there is life there is hope."
    },
    {
      "text": "as long\nas a man's heart beats, as long as a man's flesh quivers, I do not allow\nthat a being gifted with thought and will can allow himself to despair."
    },
    {
      "text": "Hunger, prolonged, is temporary madness! The brain is at work without\nits required food, and the most fantastic notions fill the mind."
    },
    {
      "text": "Man's constitution is so peculiar that his health is purely a negative\nmatter."
    },
    {
      "text": "It is only when you\nsuffer that you really understand."
    },
    {
      "text": "a learned man, a philosopher,\nis nothing if not a philosopher, when he keeps his ideas calm and\ncollected"
    },
    {
      "text": "It is perpetually undergoing the modifications caused by the\ndecomposition of internal matter, the agitation consequent on the\nflowing of extensive liquid currents, the excessive action of magnetism\nwhich tends to shake it incessantly"
    },
    {
      "text": "In such circumstances you do not choose your own\nthoughts. They overcome you."
    },
    {
      "text": "the most fortunate thing that could\nhappen to us"
    },
    {
      "text": "We are compelled to breathe just as it does"
    },
    {
      "text": "The unexpected character of such a scene added a hundredfold to its\nmarvelous beauties"
    },
    {
      "text": "we\nhad entered the earth by one volcano, and we had come out by another."
    },
    {
      "text": "The wondrous changes of this expedition had transported us to\nthe most harmonious and beautiful of earthly lands."
    },
    {
      "text": "No one would believe it—and when they saw him come back in safety they\nbelieved it all the less."
    },
    {
      "text": "So much honor necessarily created for him many envious enemies."
    },
    {
      "text": "For a\nlearned man to be baffled by such an inexplicable phenomenon was very\naggravating."
    },
    {
      "text": "From that hour my uncle was the happiest of learned men, and I the\nhappiest of ordinary mortals."
    }
  ]
}