One doesn’t discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time.

The unknown is the largest need of the intellect.

The atavistic urge toward danger persists and its satisfaction is called adventure.

New things are always ugly.

When they shout “Long live progress,” always ask, “Progress of what?”

What one man can invent another can discover.

The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility.

How gloriously legible are the constellations of the heavens!

Appearances are a glimpse of the obscure.

Research is formalized curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose. 

I am tormented with an everlasting itch for things remote. I love to sail forbidden seas and land on barbarous coasts.

Science is a cemetery of dead ideas.

What one man can invent another can discover.