Alexandre Dumas quotes:

Happiness is like those palaces in fairy tales whose gates are guarded by dragons: we must fight in order to conquer it.

He was thinking alone, and seriously racking his brain to find a direction for this single force four times multiplied, with which he did not doubt, as with the lever for which Archimedes sought, they should succeed in moving the world, when some one tapped gently at his door.

Pure love and suspicion cannot dwell together: at the door where the latter enters, the former makes its exit.

Infatuated, half through conceit, half through love of my art, I achieve the impossible working as no one else ever works.

A person who doubts himself is like a man who would enlist in the ranks of his enemies and bear arms against himself. He makes his failure certain by himself being the first person to be convinced of it.

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

God, who might have directed the assassin's dagger so as to end your career in a moment, has given you this quarter of an hour for repentance. Reflect, then, wretched man, and repent. (The Count of Monte Cristo)"

There is neither happiness nor unhappiness in this world; there is only the comparison of one state with another. Only a man who has felt ultimate despair is capable of feeling ultimate bliss. It is necessary to have wished for death in order to know how good it is to live.....the sum of all human wisdom will be contained in these two words: Wait and Hope.

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

All for one, one for all, that is our device.

Only a man who has felt ultimate despair is capable of feeling ultimate bliss.

It is almost as difficult to keep a first class person in a fourth class job, as it is to keep a fourth class person in a first class job.

Business? It's quite simple; it's other people's money.

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.

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.

But Valentine, why despair, why always paint the future in such sombre hues?" Maximilien askedBecause, my friend, I judge it by the past."

Wake up, my darling, and look at me," said Valentine with her adorable smile. Maximilien uttered a loud exclamation, and frantic, doubtful, dazzled, as though by a celestial vision, he fell upon his knees.-www.online-literature.com/dumas/crist..."

If God were suddenly condemned to live the life which He has inflicted upon men, He would kill Himself.

the greater number of a man's errors come before him disguised under the specious form of necessity; then, after error has been committed in a moment of excitement, of delirium, or of fear, we see that we might have avoided and escaped it.

The custom and fashion of today will be the awkwardness and outrage of tomorrow - so arbitrary are these transient laws.

A weakened mind always sees everything through a black veil. The soul makes its own horizons; your soul is dark, which is why you see such a cloudy sky.

It is neccessary to have wished for death in order to know how good it is to live.

Hatred is blind; rage carries you away; and he who pours out vengeance runs the risk of tasting a bitter draught.

A rogue does not laugh in the same way that an honest man does; a hypocrite does not shed the tears of a man of good faith. All falsehood is a mask; and however well made the mask may be, with a little attention we may always succeed in distinguishing it from the true face.

The hungry men were seen, followed by their valets, roaming the quais and guards' quarters; gleaning from their outside friends all the dinners they could find; for, according to Aramis, in prosperity one should sow meals right and left, in order to harvest some in adversity.

I am strong against everything, except against the death of those I love. He who dies gains; he who sees others die loses.

Sometimes one has suffered enough to have the right to never say: I am too happy.

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.

It is the way of weakened minds to see everything through a black cloud. The soul forms its own horizons; your soul is darkened, and consequently the sky of the future appears stormy and unpromising."

Your life story is a novel; and people, though they love novels bound between two yellow paper covers, are oddly suspicious of those which come to them in living vellum, even when they are as gilded as you are capable of being."

It is rare that one can see in a little boy the promise of a man, but one can almost always see in a little girl the threat of a woman.

In this world, all--men, women, and kings--must live for the present. We can only live for the future for God

in prosperity prayers seem but a mere medley of words, until misfortune comes and the unhappy sufferer first understands the meaning of the sublime language in which he invokes the pity of heaven!

God is full of mercy for everyone, as He has been towards you. He is a father before He is a judge.

Joy to hearts which have suffered long is like the dew on the ground after a long drought; both the heart and the ground absorb that beneficent moisture falling on them, and nothing is outwardly apparant.

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

Wait, and hope" (The Count of Monte Cristo)

If it is ones lot to be cast among fools, one must learn foolishness.-The Count of Monte Cristo

No, I slept as I always do when I am bored and have not the courage to amuse myself, or when I am hungry and have not the desire to eat.--The Count of Monte Cristo

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.

Never fear quarrels, but seek hazardous adventures.

Now I'd like someone to tell me there is no drama in real life!

Woman is sacred; the woman one loves is holy.

So rapid is the flight of dreams upon the wings of imagination.

All hands obeyed, and at once the eight or ten seamen who composed the crew, sprang to their respective stations at the spanker brails and outhaul, topsail sheets and halyards, the jib downhaul, and the topsail clewlines and buntlines. The young sailor gave a look to see that his orders were promptly and accurately obeyed, and then turned again to the owner.

When you compare the sorrows of real life to the pleasures of the imaginary one, you will never want to live again, only to dream forever.

I am a Count, Not a Saint.

Death is the only serious preoccupation in life.

Besides we are men, and after all it is our business to risk our lives.

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

The merit of all things lies in their difficulty.

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.

Through the ingenuousness of her age beamed an ardent mind, a mind not of the women but of the poet; she did not please, she intoxicated.

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.

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

Nothing succeeds like success.

Besides the pleasure, there is always remorse, from the indulgence of our passions; and, after all, what have you men to fear from all this; the world excuses, and notoriety ennobles you?

Women are never so strong as after their defeat.

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

How is it that little children are so intelligent and men so stupid? It must be education that does it

Love is the most selfish of all the passions.

Philosophy cannot be taught; it is the application of the sciences to truth.

Those born to wealth, and who have the means of gratifying every wish, know not what is the real happiness of life, just as those who have been tossed on the stormy waters of the ocean on a few frail planks can alone realize the blessings of fair weather.

There are words which close a conversation as with an iron door.

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

True love always makes a man better, no matter what woman inspires it.

A person who doubts himself is like a man who would enlist in the ranks of his enemies and bear arms against himself. He makes his failures certain by himself being the first person to be convinced of it.

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

I am not proud, but I am happy; and happiness blinds, I think, more than pride.

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

I do not cling to life sufficiently to fear death.

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

Life is a storm, my young friend. You will bask in the sunlight one moment, be shattered on the rocks the next. What makes you a man is what you do when that storm comes.

There are people who are willing to suffer and swallow their tears at leisure, and God will not doubt reward them in heaven for their resignation; but those who have the will to struggle strike back at fate in retaliation for the blows they receive. Do you intend to fight back at fate, Valentine? That's what I came here to ask you. -Maximilien Morrel

I have no will, unless it be the will never to decide. I have been so overwhelmed by the many storms that have broken over my head, that I am become passive in the hands of the Almighty, like a sparrow in the talons of an eagle. I live, because it is not ordained for me to die.

We must never expect discretion in first love: it is accompanied by such excessive joy that unless the joy is allowed to overflow, it will choke you.

Your bitter memories still have time to turn into sweet ones.

Darling, replied Valentine, has not the count just told us that all human wisdom was contained in these two words,- "Wait and hope"?

Kitty: I thought your ladyship was ill. I wanted to help you. Lady deWinter: I ill? Do you take me for a weak woman? When I am insulted I do not feel ill - I avenge myself. Do you hear?

I prefer rogues to imbeciles, because they sometimes take a rest.

How is it that little children are so intelligent and men so stupid? It must be education that does it.

All generalizations are dangerous, even this one.

For all evils there are two remedies - time and silence.

Learning does not make one learned: there are those who have knowledge and those who have understanding. The first requires memory and the second philosophy

There are two ways of seeing: with the body and with the soul. The body's sight can sometimes forget, but the soul remembers forever.

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

For there are two distinct sorts of ideas: Those that proceed from the head and those that emanate from the heart.

One's work may be finished someday, but one's education never.

...The friends we have lost do not repose under the ground...they are buried deep in our hearts. It has been thus ordained that they may always accompany us...

...know you not that you are my sun by day, and my star by night? By my faith! I was in deepest darkness till you appeared and illuminated all.

A person who doubts himself is like a man who would enlist in the ranks of his enemies and bear arms against himself.

Abbe Faria: Here is your final lesson - do not commit the crime for which you now serve the sentence. God said, Vengeance is mine. Edmond Dantes: I don't believe in God. Abbe Faria: It doesn't matter. He believes in you.

The difference between treason and patriotism is only a matter of dates.

Ah, lips that say one thing, while the heart thinks another,

Often we pass beside happiness without seeing it, without looking at it, or even if we have seen and looked at it, without recognizing it.

I hate this life of the fashionable world, always ordered, measured, ruled, like our music-paper. What I have always wished for, desired, and coveted, is the life of an artist, free and independent, relying only on my own resources, and accountable only to myself.

Life is a storm. One minute you will bathe under the sun and the next you will be shattered upon the rocks. That's when you shout, "Do your worst, for I will do mine!" and you will be remembered forever.

As a general rule...people ask for advice only in order not to follow it; or if they do follow it, in order to have someone to blame for giving it.

How did I escape? With difficulty. How did I plan this moment? With pleasure.

True, I have raped history, but it has produced some beautiful offspring.

Be kind, aim for my heart.

I do not often laugh, sir, as you may perceive by the air of my countenance; but nevertheless, I retain the privilege of laughing when I please.

Dantes passed through all the stages of torture natural to prisoners in suspense. He was sustained at first by that pride of conscious innocence which is the sequence to hope; then he began to doubt his own innocence, which justified in some measure the governor's belief in his mental alienation; and then, relaxing his sentiment of pride, he addressed his supplications, not to God, but to man. God is always the last resource. Unfortunates, who ought to begin with God, do not have any hope in him till they have exhausted all other means of deliverance.

The wretched and the miserable should turn to their Savior first, yet they do not hope in Him until all other hope is exhausted.

that Englishman who came to challenge me three or four months ago, and whom I killed to stop him bothering me

But that's not the name of a man, it's the name of a mountain! (...) "It is my name," Athos said calmly. "But you said your name was d'Artagnan." "I?" "Yes, you." "That is to say, someone said to me: 'You are M. d'Artagnan?' I replied: 'You think so?' My guards shouted that they were sure of it. I did not want to vex them. Besides, I might have been mistaken.

We are always in a hurry to be happy...; for when we have suffered a long time, we have great difficulty in believing in good fortune.

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.

Nothing makes time pass or shortens the way like a thought that absorbs in itself all the faculties of the one who is thinking. External existence is then like a sleep of which this thought is the dream. Under its influence, time has no more measure, space has no more distance.

Your life story is a novel; and people, though they love novels wound between two yellow paper covers, are oddly suspicious of those which come to them in living vellum.

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 of 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.

Without reflecting that this is the only moment in which you can study character," said the count; "on the steps of the scaffold death tears off the mask that has been worn through life, and the real visage is disclosed.

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.

Youth is a blossom whose fruit is love; happy is he who plucks it after watching it slowly ripen.

Athos liked every one to exercise his own free-will. He never gave his advice before it was demanded and even then it must be demanded twice. "In general, people only ask for advice," he said "that they may not follow it or if they should follow it that they may have somebody to blame for having given it".

I prefer the wicked rather than the foolish. The wicked sometimes rest.

I'm sure you're very nice, but you'd be even nicer if you went away.