When I have decided on a thing, all America, all the world, may strive in vain to keep me from it.
When I have an idea, I allow no one to share it, and I do not permit any contradiction.

I insist on these details, honorable citizens, because it is necessary you should quite understand me.

Perhaps you think I am talking too much about myself?
It does not matter if you do! And now consider a little before you interrupt me, as I have come to tell you something that you may not be particularly pleased to hear." A sound as of the surf on the beach began to rise along the first row of seats--a sign that the sea would not be long in getting stormy again.
"Speak, stranger!" said Uncle Prudent, who had some difficulty in restraining himself.
And Robur spoke as follows, without troubling himself any more about his audience.
"Yes! I know it well! After a century of experiments that have led to nothing, and trials giving no results, there still exist ill-balanced minds who believe in guiding balloons.

They imagine that a motor of some sort, electric or otherwise, might be applied to their pretentious skin bags which are at the mercy of every current in the atmosphere.

They persuade themselves that they can be masters of an aerostat as they can be masters of a ship on the surface of the sea.
Because a few inventors in calm or nearly calm weather have succeeded in working an angle with the wind, or even beating to windward in a gentle breeze, they think that the steering of aerial apparatus lighter than the air is a practical matter.