What a book! What a book!
-- Otto Lidenbrock (Chapter 2 paragraph 4)

Importance: Having discovered an ancient volume in a shop, Otto is delighted to return home to read it. He loves learning, and the book about the early history of Iceland is of great interest to him in this pursuit. It is from the book that the Saknussemm manuscript will emerge and lead to the journey that will take them to the center of the earth.

Ah! Those tiresome theories! How they hamper us, those poor theories!
-- Otto Lidenbrock (Chapter 6 paragraph 46)

Importance: Otto chastises the scientific community for blind faith in scientific theories that have never been personally verified. He notes that science is fallible. He specifically refers to the theory that the earth’s core is molten rock and dismisses it because no one has ever been there to verify it.

The most curious part of Iceland is not what is on the surface, but what is below.
-- Otto Lidenbrock (Chapter 9 paragraph 38)

Importance: Here, Otto...