I was presented to Monsieur de Montmagny, the viceroy. He asked my nationality, name, and rank. When I had satisfied him by recounting the success of my voyage, which he either believed or pretended to, he kindly lent me a room in his apartment. I was happy to meet a man capable of enlightened opinions, one who was not surprised when I told him that the earth must have turned beneath me while I was aloft. Having begun my ascent two leagues from Paris, I had come down in almost a straight line to Canada.

With my equipment, I walked toward a thatched cottage from which I saw smoke emerging. I was scarcely within pistol-shot range when I was surrounded by a large…

In the evening, as I was going to bed, I saw him come into my room. 'I would not have come,' he told me, 'and interrupt your rest unless I believed that someon…

I established myself in a fairly remote country house and entertained my imagination with various means of transport. Here is how I betook myself to heaven. I …

The world's a fine place for those who go out to take it; there's lots of unknown stuff' in it yet. I'll fill your lap, my pretty, so full of treasures that yo…

The glorious years of discovery in radio astronomy in the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge were dominated by the personality of Martin Ryle.

Blacker, with the exception of Col Everest, was the ablest and most scientific man that ever presided over this expensive department