Jules Verne said this quote

Science, my boy, is made up of mistakes, but they are mistakes which it is useful to make, because they lead little by little to the truth.

~ Jules Verne

It seems wisest to assume the worst from the beginning...and let anything better come as a surprise.

~ Jules Verne

So, fatality will play me these terrible tricks. The elements themselves conspire to overwhelm me with mortification. Air, fire, and water combine their united efforts to oppose my passage. Well, they shall see what the earnest will of a determined man can do. I will not yield, I will not retreat even one inch; and we shall see who shall triumph in this great contest - man or nature.

~ Jules Verne

Reality provides us with facts so romantic that imagination itself could add nothing to them.

~ Jules Verne