Theme: ambition
Pride and Prejudice / Social Dynamics
Collins’s triumph, in consequence of this invitation, was complete. The power of displaying the grandeur of his patroness to his wondering visitors, a...
The War of the Worlds / Monotony of Existence
All these—the sort of people that lived in these houses, and all those damn little clerks that used to live down _that_ way—they’d be no good. They ha...
A Journey to the Centre of the Earth / Exploration and Risk
We are about to pay a visit to the very bottom of the crater. Others have done it and did not perish from that course. "That, however, is not the whol...
A Journey to the Centre of the Earth / Unprepared Voyage
We are utterly unprepared for a sea voyage; it is simply madness to think of performing a journey of five hundred leagues upon a wretched pile of beam...
Dracula / Social Dynamics
We once carried out a small matter of renting some chambers for him when he was the Honourable Arthur Holmwood. If you will let me have his lordship’s...
Around the World in Eighty Days / Sacrifice and Time
Fogg!” cried she, clasping his hands and covering them with tears. Fogg, “if we do not lose a moment.” Phileas Fogg, by this resolution, inevitably sa...
Dracula / Aspiring Partnership
I have been working very hard lately, because I want to keep up with Jonathan’s studies, and I have been practising shorthand very assiduously. When w...
The War of the Worlds / Decay and Ambition
The pit was still in darkness; the mighty engines, so great and wonderful in their power and complexity, so unearthly in their tortuous forms, rose we...
A Journey to the Centre of the Earth / Exploration and Survival
"Once we reach the exact centre of this sphere, either we shall find a new road by which to ascend to the surface, or we shall simply turn round and g...
Gulliver's Travels / Tradition vs Innovation
By all which, instead of being discouraged, they are fifty times more violently bent upon prosecuting their schemes, driven equally on by hope and des...
A Journey to the Centre of the Earth / Human Ambition
Such a process, simple as it seemed, would most certainly not have entered our heads. Nothing could be more dangerous than to begin to work with picka...
Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea / Stealthy Departure
The crew had just finished loading the sodium, and the _Nautilus_ could have left that instant. Did he wish to wait until night, and leave the submari...
Frankenstein / Creators Horror
I started from my sleep with horror; a cold dew covered my forehead, my teeth chattered, and every limb became convulsed; when, by the dim and yellow ...
Frankenstein / Fear of Knowledge
He soon perceived that I disliked the subject; but not guessing the real cause, he attributed my feelings to modesty, and changed the subject from my ...
A Journey to the Centre of the Earth / Desperate Quenching
Our thirst was so intense that to quench it we would have dug below the bed of old Ocean itself. Hans went quietly to work--a work which neither my un...
Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea / Natures Tension
The horizon grew wider and clearer at the same time. Suddenly, just as on the day before, Ned Land’s voice was heard: “The thing itself on the port qu...
Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea / Nemos Ascent
Captain Nemo went towards the peak, which he doubtless meant to be his observatory. It was a painful ascent over the sharp lava and the pumice-stones,...
Around the World in Eighty Days / Deception and Pursuit
Now that he was fully convinced, Fix had quite recovered his equanimity. He passes himself off as an odd stick who is going round the world in eighty ...
Frankenstein / Moral Conflict
It was to be decided whether the result of my curiosity and lawless devices would cause the death of two of my fellow beings: one a smiling babe full ...
Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea / Fate and Irony
Amongst other things, we happened to speak of the situation of the _Nautilus_, run aground in exactly the same spot in this strait where Dumont d’Urvi...
Frankenstein / Familial Expectations
Your father’s health is vigorous, and he asks but to see you, but to be assured that you are well; and not a care will ever cloud his benevolent count...
A Journey to the Centre of the Earth / Prudence vs Adventure
To fly is, therefore, the course to be suggested by ordinary prudence. But we have not come into that part of the world to be prudent. The nearer we c...
Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea / Continents and Men
These are coral islands, slowly raised, but continuous, created by the daily work of polypi. Then this new island will be joined later on to the neigh...
Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea / Exploration and Irony
sir,” said Captain Nemo, in an ironical tone, “you will always be the same. I affirm that not only can the _Nautilus_ disengage itself, but also that ...
Around the World in Eighty Days / Race Against Time
Is it uncommon for the best ocean steamers to be two or three days behind time? But a single delay would suffice to fatally break the chain of communi...
Frankenstein / Intellectual Passion
My application was at first fluctuating and uncertain; it gained strength as I proceeded and soon became so ardent and eager that the stars often disa...
Gulliver's Travels / Eccentric Ambitions
Every room has in it one or more projectors; and I believe I could not be in fewer than five hundred rooms. The first man I saw was of a meagre aspect...
A Journey to the Centre of the Earth / Fate and Explosions
"We are bound to go through," responded the Professor, tapping me on the back. At midnight, our work as miners was completely finished; the charge of ...
Around the World in Eighty Days / Anxieties of Adventure
Fogg, I suppose, is anxious to catch the steamer for Yokohama?” “Terribly anxious.” “You believe in this journey around the world, then?” “Absolutely....
A Journey to the Centre of the Earth / Enthusiasm and Restraint
"Forward--forward," I cried in a burst of genuine and hearty enthusiasm. I had already started in the direction of the somber and gloomy gallery when ...