Quotes from Alexandre Dumas

There's nothing gives you so much courage as good reasons, continued the sailor;

Tis strange that it should be among such men that we find proofs of friendship and devotion.

when you have the honour to find yourself in the company of ordinary men and the good fortune to be out of politics for a moment, please try to pick up the heart that you leave behind at the cloakroom of the Lower and Upper House.

After about ten minutes' silence, she suddenly said: "Is it true that you have seen much, travelled far, and suffered deeply?" "I have suffered deeply, madame," answered Monte Cristo. "But now you are happy?" "Doubtless," replied the Count, "since no one hears me complain." "And has your present happiness softened your heart?" "My present happiness equals my past misery," said the Count.

Now, I cannot for one instant believe you so devoid of gallantry as to refuse a lady your escort when she even condescends to ask you for it.

but because she had at once classed him in that catalogue of bipeds whom Plato endeavors to withdraw from the appellation of men, and whom Diogenes designated as animals upon two legs without feathers. Unfortunately

Pretend to think well of yourself, and the world will think well of you," an axiom a hundred times more useful in society nowadays than that of the Greeks, "Know thyself," a knowledge for which, in our days, we have substituted the less difficult and more advantageous science of knowing others.

While working night and day, I sometimes lose all recollection of the past, and then I experience the same sort of happiness I can imagine the dead feel; still, it is better than suffering.

He leaned over the dying man and whispered in his ear, 'I am—' And his lips uttered a name so softly that he himself seemed to be afraid to hear it.

But the kings of modern times, restrained by the limits of mere probability, have neither courage nor desire. They fear the ear that hears their orders, and the eye that scrutinizes their actions.

If one's lot is cast among fools, it is necessary to study folly.

The belfry of St Cloud slowly emitted ten strokes from its broad sonorous jaws. There was something melancholy in that voice of bronze, which thus breathed its lamentations in the night. But each of those sounds, which told the hour he sighed for, vibrated harmoniously in the heart of the young man.

You live alone, then?" "I do." "You have no sister, no son, no father?" "I have no one." "How can you live thus, with no one to attach you to life?

Ideas never die, Sire, and, though they may slumber for a time, they wake up stronger than when they fell asleep.

he sat down in the chair and went over in his mind everything that in the past week or so had filled his cup of bitter sorrows and dark memories to overflowing.

When one thinks," said Caderousse, letting his hand drop on the paper, "there is here wherewithal to kill a man more sure than if we waited at the corner of a wood to assassinate him! I have always had more dread of a pen, a bottle of ink, and a sheet of paper, than of a sword or pistol.

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 apparent. Monte

Woman is often fickle, said François I; and woman is like the waves, said Shakespeare.3 One was a great king, the other a great poet, so they must have known women.

Before one is afraid, one sees clearly; while one is afraid, one sees double; and after being afraid, one sees dimly. Danglars

Albert seized it and put it victoriously into his buttonhole

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

Vivez donc et soyez heureux, enfants chéris de mon cÅ"ur, et n'oubliez jamais que, jusqu'au jour où Dieu daignera dévoiler l'avenir à l'homme, toute la sagesse humaine sera dans ces deux mots: «Attendre et espérer!

Some virtues, when taken to the extreme, become crimes.

My father was a mulatto, my grandfather was a Negro, and my great-grandfather a monkey. You see, Sir, my family starts where yours ends.