Quotes from Alexandre Dumas

Nineteen years of light to reflect upon in eternal darkness!

Dantès descended, murmuring the supreme word of human philosophy: 'Perhaps.

When you wish to obtain some concession from a man's self-love, you must avoid even the appearance of wishing to wound it." "I

And then he gave himself over entirely to his feelings of happiness. He was certainly no longer going to be alone, he might perhaps even be free. The worst case, should he remain a prisoner, was to have a companion: captivity shared is only semi-captivity. Sighs united together are almost prayers; prayers coming from two hearts are almost acts of grace.

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

a parcel of country boobies

We must never look for discretion in first love. First love is accompanied by such excessive joy that unless the joy be allowed to overflow, it will stifle you.

Crois-moi, on cherche mal quand on ne réfléchit pas.

grief may kill, although it rarely does, and never in a day, never in an hour, never in ten minutes.

Look here, Monsieur l'Abbé,' said Caderousse. 'Here in the corner of this wall is a crucifix of consecrated wood; here, on this sideboard, is my wife's New Testament. Open it and I will swear to you on it, with my hand extended towards the crucifix: I will swear by my immortal soul, by my Christian faith, that I have told you everything just as it was and as the recording angel will whisper it into God's ear on the Day of Judgement!

Where did I meet him before - this buckbasket of fat, this full-moon face of purple, and this carriage of a sacred elephant?

Your history is quite a romance, and the world, which delights in romances contained in two covers of yellow paper, strangely mistrusts those which are bound in living parchment, even thought they be gilded like yourself.

La haine est aveugle, la colère étourdie, et celui qui se verse la vengeance risque de boire un breuvage amer.

I say that love is a lottery in which he who wins, wins death! You are very fortunate to have lost, believe me, my dear d'Artagnan. And if I have any counsel to give, it is, always lose!

I know that I have been a fool, a madman, to believe that the snow could have been animated, that the marble could grow warm; but what would you expect? The lover easily believes in love, nor has my journey been entirely in vain, since I behold you now.

We are never quits with those who oblige us," was Dantes' reply; "for when we do not owe them money, we owe them gratitude.

to learn is not to know; there are the learners and the learned. Memory makes the one, philosophy the other." "But

No halfway emotions can exist in a heart swollen with utmost despair.

Jamais homme bien amoureux n'a laissé les horloges faire paisiblement leur chemin.

Uncertainty is still hope.

the ladies of Italy have this advantage over those of France, that they are faithful even in their infidelity.

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. You must look into that storm and shout as you did in Rome. Do your worst, for I will do mine! Then the fates will know you as we know you.

There are, indeed, some things which appear so impossible that the mind does not dwell on them for an instant.

Because he plainly perceives that his piquette* stands in need of being enlivened by a mixture of good wine. *A watered liquor, made from the second pressing of the grape.