Source identified1
Image design Linen
Read & copy
“The sea is everything. It covers seven-tenths of the terrestrial globe.”
Meaning & context
Captain Nemo begins an expansive defense of ocean life by presenting the sea as the dominant physical environment of the planet and the realm in which he seeks freedom.
Source details
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas, Part I, Chapter X, “The Man of the Seas,” represented by Project Gutenberg #164 in English translation. Captain Nemo tells Professor Aronnax that the sea is everything and covers seven-tenths of the globe inside a longer speech mixing geography, Romantic nature language and his desire for independence from terrestrial power. It is translated fictional dialogue, not a current scientific source.