In the Jardins de Saint Martin (St. Martin Gardens) one can find a rock with a metal plate, which contains a quote of Prince Albert I of Monaco. According to this article (leftmost column) it is the final paragraph of the foreword that Prince Albert I wrote for the book "La carrière d'un navigateur" (The career of a navigator), which is about his travel memories. Above the main plate there's a round metal plate with a relief portrait of Albert I.
The original French text on the plate is:
Durant ma carrière de navigateur,
j'ai obtenu de la mer quelques aveux
sur les lois qui déterminent son rôle
parmi les forces du Monde, ou qui
propagent la vie jusqu'au fond
des abímes. Et, tandis que mes
yeux s'ouvraient au ravissement des
fécondités sans limite, une parcelle
du mystère qui domine la création,
les espaces et les temps s'éclaira
pour me donner une sereine
confiance dans la destinée que
l'équilibre de l'Univers impose
aux organismes avec le cycle éternel
de la vie et de la mort.
Albert 1er Prince de Monaco
1848-1922
And on this webpage I found an English translation:
During my career as navigator, I obtained some confessions from the sea about the laws that determine its role among the forces of the world, or those who spread life till the depth of the abysm. And, while my eyes opened in admiration of the fertility without limits, a parcel of mystery that dominates creation, the spaces and times become clear to give me a serein confidence in the destiny that the balance of the universe imposes to its organisms with the eternal cycle of life and death.