Alexandre Dumas Quotes - Page 2

This sometimes happened: from time to time, Dantès, driven out of solitude into the world, felt an imperative need for solitude. And what solitude is more vast and more poetic than that of a ship sailing alone on the sea, in the darkness of night and the silence of infinity, under the eye of the Lord?

I have always had more dread of a pen, a bottle of ink, and a sheet of paper than of a sword or pistol.

Valentine reposes within the walls of Paris, and to leave Paris is like losing her a second time.""Maximilian," said the count, "the friends that we have lost do not repose in the bosom of the earth, but are buried deep in our hearts, and it has been thus ordained that we may always be accompanied by them.

There is no friendship that cares about an overheard secret.

D'Artagnan had time to reflect that women - those gentle doves - treat one another more cruelly than bears and tigers.

All for one and one for all, united we stand divided we fall.

Friendship throws out deep roots in honest hearts, D'Artagnan. Believe me, it is only the evil-minded who deny friendship; they cannot understand it.

Moral wounds have this peculiarity - they may be hidden, but they never close; always painful, always ready to bleed when touched, they remain fresh and open in the heart.

For the happy man prayer is only a jumble of words, until the day when sorrow comes to explain to him the sublime language by means of which he speaks to God.

Look, look,' cried the count, seizing the young man's hands - "look, for on my soul it is curious. Here is a man who had resigned himself to his fate, who was going to the scaffold to die - like a coward, it is true, but he was about to die without resistance. Do you know what gave him strength? - do you know what consoled him? It was, that another partook of his punishment - that another partook of his anguish - that another was to die before him. Lead two sheep to the butcher's, two oxen to the slaughterhouse, and make one of them understand that his companion will not die; the sheep will bleat for pleasure, the ox will bellow with joy. But man - man, who God created in his own image - man, upon whom God has laid his first, his sole commandment, to love his neighbour - man, to whom God has given a voice to express his thoughts - what is his first cry when he hears his fellowman is saved? A blasphemy. Honour to man, this masterpiece of nature, this king of the creation!

Darling, has not the count just told us that all human wisdom is summed up in two words? Wait and hope.

But these first needs of the heart are so imperious, these outpourings of amorous melancholy in young people are at once so sweet and so bitter, that they have often all the real marks of the passion.

All human wisdom is summed up in two words - wait and hope.

You are young," replied Athos, "and your bitter memories have time to change into sweet ones.

You instinctively display the greatest virtue, or rather the chief defect, of us eccentric Parisians- that is, you assume the vices you have not, and conceal the virtues you possess.

There is something so awe-inspiring in great afflictions that even in the worst times the first emotion of a crowd has generally been to sympathise with the sufferer in a great catastrophe.

It is quite rare for God to provide a great man at the necessary moment to carry out some great deep, which is why when this unusual combination of circumstance does occur, history at once records the name of the chosen one and recommends him to the admiration of posterity.

Mastery of language affords one remarkable opportunities.

She is not my mistress,' replied the young sailor gravely, ‘she is my betrothed.’'Sometimes one and the same thing,' said Morrel, with a smile.'Not with us, sir,' replied Dantes.

How well I know you by your deeds and how invariably you succeed in living down to what one expects of you!

Joyful friends, mostly loyal, they hadn't abandoned their protector before the gathering storm; and despite the threatening sky, despite the shuddering earth, they remained, smiling, considerate, and as devoted to misfortune as they had been to prosperity.

these groups followed some solitary passer-by, hurrying his steps; one after another the doors were closed, one after

Yet man will never be perfect until he learns to create and destroy; he does know how to destroy, and that is half the battle.

The kingdoms of kings are confined, either by mountains or rivers, or by a change in customs or by a difference of language; but my kingdom is as great as the world, because I am neither Italian, nor French, nor Hindu, nor American, nor a Spaniard; I am a cosmopolitan. No country can claim to be my birthplace, God alone knows in which region I shall die. I adopt every custom, I speak every tongue [... ] In this way, you see, being of no country, asking for the protection of no goverment and acknowledging no man as my brother, I am not restrained or hampered by a single one of the scruples that tie the hands of the powerful or the obstacles that block the path of the weak.

Athos was delighted to find he was going to fight an Englishman. We might say that was his dream.

Enough,' said Mercedes, 'enough Edmond! Believe me that she who alone recognized you has been the only one to comprehend you. And had she crossed your path, and you had crushed her like a frail glass, still, Edmond, still she must have admired you! Like the gulf between me and the past, there is an abyss between you, Edmond, and the rest of mankind; and I tell you freely, that the comparison I drew between you and other men will be one of my greatest tortures. No! there is nothing in the world to resemble you in worth and goodness!

Fool that I am," said he,"that I did not tear out my heart the day I resolved to revenge myself".

Be happy, noble heart, be blessed for all the good thou hast done and wilt do hereafter, and let my gratitude remain in obscurity like your good deeds.

we said we would be to each other as two voices, who shadows.

Dantes had entered the Chateau d’If with the round, open, smiling face of a young and happy man, with whom the earlypaths of life have been smooth. and who anticipates a future corresponding with his past. This was now all changed. The oval face was lengthened, his smiling mouth had assumed the firm and markedlines which betoken resolution; his eyebrows were arched beneath a brow furrowed with thought; his eyes were full of melancholy, and from their depths occasionally sparkled gloomy fires of misanthropy and hatred; his complexion, so long kept from the sun, had now that pale color which produces, when the features are encircled with black hair, the aristocratic beauty of the man of the north; the profound learning he had acquired had besides diffused over his features a refined intellectual expression; and he had also acquired, being naturally of a goodly stature, that vigor which a frame possesses which has so long concentrated all its force within itself.

In business, sir, one has no friends, only correspondents.

Everyone knows that God protects drunkards and lovers.

He who has felt the deepest grief is best able to experience supreme happiness.

However anxious one is to reach one’s goal, one can excuse delays on the route when these are caused by ovations.

Melancholy in a capitalist, like the appearance of a comet, presages some misfortune to the world.

There is neither happiness nor misery in the world; there is only the comparison of one state with another, nothing more.

Can we account for instinct?' said Monte Cristo. 'Are there not some places where we seem to breathe sadness? — why, we cannot tell. It is a chain of recollections — an idea which carries you back to other times, to other places — which, very likely, have no connection with the present time and place.

We are entitled to violate history, provided that it results in handsome offspring.

There are some catastrophes that a poor writer's pen cannot describe and which he is obliged to leave to the imagination of his readers with a bald statement of the facts.

The truth is,’ replied Dantes, ‘that I am too happy for noisy mirth; ...joy takes a strange effect at times, it seems to oppress us almost the same as sorrow.

After which, satisfied with the way he had conducted himself at Meung, free of remorse for the past, confident in the present, and full of hope for the future, he went to bed and slept the sleep of the just.

Sometimes salvation is found in agony.

There is neither happiness nor misery in the world; there is only the comparison of one state with another, nothing more. He who has felt the deepest grief is best able to experience supreme happiness. We must have felt what it is to die, Morrel, that we may appreciate the enjoyments of life. " Live, then, and be happy, beloved children of my heart, and never forget, that until the day God will deign to reveal the future to man, all human wisdom is contained in these two words, 'Wait and Hope.

For Milady was well aware that her most seductive power was in her voice, which could run skilfully through the whole scale of tones, from mortal speech, upwards to the language of heaven.

Man does not steal, he conquers

How strange," continued the king, with some asperity; "the police think that they have disposed of the whole matter when they say, 'A murder has been committed,' and especially so when they can add, 'And we are on the track of the guilty persons.

In politics, you know, as well as I do, there are no men, but ideas - no feelings, but interests.

Dite all’Angelo che veglierà sulla vostra vita, Morrel, di pregare qualche volta per un uomo che, simile a Satana, per un momento si è creduto simile a Dio e ha riconosciuto, con tutta l’umiltà di un cristiano, che nelle mani di Dio soltanto sta il supremo potere e la infinita sapienza

To learn is not to know; there are the learners and the learned. Memory makes the one, philosophy the others.

Let me struggle like a woman- my strength lies in my weakness. - Milady

Is not a day divided into twenty-four hours, each hour into sixty minutes, and every minute sub-divided into sixty seconds? Now in 86,400 seconds many things can be done.

The dream of poor Bazin had always been to serve a man of the cloth.

...remember that what has once been done may be done again.

Until the day when God shall deign to reveal the future to man, all human wisdom is summed up in these two words,-Wait and hope.

I was delighted to see you again, and forgot for the moment that all happiness is fleeting.

Unfortunates, who ought to begin with God, do not have any hope in him till they have exhausted all other means of deliverance.

God is merciful to all, as he has been to you; he is first a father, then a judge.

I do not cling to life sufficiently to fear death.

Ah, Caderousse,' said Andrea, 'how covetous you are! Two months ago you were dying with hunger.''The appetite grows by what it feeds on,' said Caderousse.

So much the worse for those who fear wine, for it is because they have some bad thoughts which they are afraid the liquor will extract from their hearts.