Book: Bouvard and Pecuchet

“If our world, in turn, went head over heels, the inhabitants of the stars would be no more excited than we are at this moment. Thinking like that slays all pride.

Finally, they wondered if people live in the stars. Why shouldn't they live there? And since the universe is harmonious, the inhabitants of Sirius should be of huge growth, Mars - medium, and Venus - small, unless they are the same everywhere. Up there, there are merchants, gendarmes, there they trade, they fight, they overthrow kings.

Science is built on data gleaned from one corner of space. Perhaps it does not fit the rest of the part, invisible to us, much larger and incomprehensible.

What a meanness to always think about prolonging your existence! Life is only good when you enjoy it.

They immediately became attached to each other with mysterious threads. And really, how to explain sympathy? Why is it that such and such a peculiarity, such and such an imperfection, which is indifferent or repugnant in one person, is attractive in another?

They began to praise the advantages of the sciences: how many things you can learn, how much to explore ... if you have time! Alas, it was spent on getting bread.

Their conversation flowed and inexhaustible, anecdotes were replaced by remarks, personal views - philosophical generalizations. They criticized the Corps of Railway Engineers, the Tobacco Monopoly, the Merchant World, the Theatres, the Domestic Navy, and the entire human race, as if they were men who had been in great trouble.

The spectacle of the wedding train led Bouvard and Pécuchet to talk about women, whom they accused of frivolity, quarrelsomeness, stubbornness. Yet they are often better than men; and then there are worse. In a word, it is smarter to live without them.

On the other side of the canal, between the houses where the timber warehouses are located, the wide clear sky loomed as azure squares, and in the rays of the sun the white facades, tiled roofs, granite embankments dazzled the eyes. A vague distant rumble stood in the warm air; and everything seemed to be numb from Sunday idleness and melancholy, characteristic of summer days.

This is not cowardice, though it is usually considered, and a great adventure to laugh, even at the expense of yourself, on what people value above all else.