Quotes from Alexandre Dumas

I think they are rising faster than they have any business, and that they would not be so black if they did not mean mischief.

Insensé, dit-il, le jour où j'avais résolu de me venger, de ne pas m'être arraché le cÅ"ur !

throwing himself into a chair in a manner which implied that he would rather have flung it at the head of his host.

Edmond did not lose a word, but comprehended very little of what was said.

Is the world filled with tigers and crocodiles?" "Yes; and remember that two-legged tigers and crocodiles are more dangerous than the others.

One!" said the count mysteriously, his eyes fixed on the corpse, disfigured by so awful a death.

You have suspicions, nevertheless? Yes, monseigneur; but these suspicions appeared to be disagreeable to Monsieur the Commissary, and I no longer have them.

In excessive griefs, as in great tempests, the abyss is found between the tops of the loftiest waves

A man has carried off your mistress, a man has seduced your wife, a man has dishonored your daughter; he has rendered the whole life of one who had the right to expect from heaven that portion of happiness God has promised to every one of his creatures, an existence of misery and infamy; and you think you are avenged because you send a ball through the head, or pass a sword through the breast, of that man who has planted madness in your brain, and despair in your heart.

What is the sense in recriminations about things over which the will of God itself is powerless? God can change the future, He cannot alter even an instant of the past.

This piece of iron which he had been allowed to keep aroused a more profound wave of gratitude towards heaven in his heart than he had experienced, in his previous life, from the greatest blessings that had descended upon him.

Philosophy cannot be taught. Philosophy is the union of all acquired knowledge and the genius that applies it: philosophy is the shining cloud upon which Christ set His foot to go up into heaven.

Monsieur Morcerf," said Danglars, pale with anger and fear, "if I find a mad dog in my path I kill it and, far from feeling guilty about it, I feel that I have rendered a service to society. If you are mad and try to bite me, I warn you that I will kill you without pity. Is it my fault that your father is dishonored?

Man does not appear to me to be intended to enjoy felicity so unmixed; happiness is like the enchanted palaces we read of in our childhood, where fierce, fiery dragons defend the entrance and approach; and monsters of all shapes and kinds, requiring to be overcome ere victory is ours. I own that I am lost in wonder to find myself promoted to an honor of which I feel myself unworthy—

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

But mankind, on the contrary, is repelled by blood. It is not the laws of society that condemn murder, but the laws of nature.

We have our clothes, some more splendid than others,—this is our credit; but when a man dies he has only his skin;

Then, when they had thus passed the day in building castles in the air, they separated their flocks, and descended from the elevation of their dreams to the reality of their humble position.

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.

Give me full details, if you please, and above all begin at the beginning. I like order in all things.

The wicked are great drinkers of water; As the flood proved once for all.

apprendre n'est pas savoir; il y a les sachants et les savants : c'est la mémoire qui fait les uns, c'est la philosophie qui fait les autres. (p. 183)

He perceived then, at a glance, that this woman was young and beautiful; and her style of beauty struck him more forcibly from its being totally different from that of the southern countries in which d'Artagnan had hitherto resided. She was pale and fair, with long curls falling in profusion over her shoulders, had large, blue, languishing eyes, rosy lips, and hands of alabaster.

She was in tears; and, strange as it was, in spite of the emotions he felt at the sight of these tears, he looked also at Madame de Villefort, and it appeared to him as if a slight gloomy smile had passed over her thin lips, like those meteors which are seen passing inauspiciously between two clouds in a stormy sky.