Quotes from Alexandre Dumas

La colpa non era di Dantès bensì di Dio che, limitando la potenza dell'uomo, gli ha creato desideri infiniti.

that theatrical formality invented to heighten the effect of a comedy called the signature of the contract

Ah  ! murmura-t-il, j'entends parler un homme. » Il y avait quatre ou cinq ans qu'Edmond n'avait entendu parler que son geôlier, et pour le prisonnier le geôlier n'est pas un homme : c'est une porte vivante ajoutée à la porte de chêne, c'est un barreau de chair ajouté à ses barreaux de fer.

Pain, thou art not an evil.

les murailles ont des oreilles, mais elles n'ont pas de langue ;

the sins of the fathers shall fall upon their children to the third and fourth generation.

She will follow you to the end of the world, Athos, if she recognizes you.

You know that with bankers nothing but a written document will be valid.

Oh, Mercédès, I have uttered your name with the sigh of melancholy, with the groan of sorrow, with the last effort of despair; I have uttered it when frozen with cold, crouched on the straw in my dungeon; I have uttered it, consumed with heat, rolling on the stone floor of my prison.

The movement of the arm, the sound of the voice, and the agility of the body were wanting, but the speaking eye sufficed for all.

Now, it will scarcely require two years for me to communicate to you the stock of learning I possess. Two years! exclaimed Dantes; do you really believe I can acquire all these things in so short a time? Not their application, certainly, but their principles you may; to learn is not to know; there are the learners and the learned. Memory makes the one, philosophy the other.

Utterly sure of himself, convinced of his power, certain that the laws that governed other men couldn't touch him, he made straight for any goal he set himself, however rarified and dazzling, even if it were folly for anyone else to even consider it.

nothing appears impossible to one condemned to die, and miracles appear quite reasonable when his escape from death is concerned.

In a moment he restrained himself so powerfully that the tempestuous heaving of his breast subsided, as turbulent and foaming waves yield to the sun's genial influence when the cloud has passed.

But the heart of a woman is such that, however arid it may become when the winds of prejudice and the demands of etiquette have blown across it, there always remains one corner that is radiant and fertile -the one that God has dedicated to maternal love.

The gloomy light, the silence and the awful poetry of night had no doubt combined with the fearful poetry of her conscience: the poisoner was afraid to see her work.

Notre déjeuner est un déjeuner philanthropique, et nous aurons à notre table, je l'espère du moins, deux bienfaiteurs de l'humanité. – Comment ferons-nous ? dit Debray, nous n'avons qu'un prix Montyon ? – Eh bien, mais on le donnera à quelqu'un qui n'aura rien fait pour l'avoir, dit Beauchamp. C'est de cette façon-là que d'ordinaire l'Académie se tire d'embarras.

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

I, who was looking on, an eager and curious spectator - I, who was watching the working of this mournful tragedy - I, who like a wicked angel laughing at the evil men committed protected by secrecy (a secret is easily kept by the rich and powerful), I am in my turn bitten by the serpent whose tortuous course I was watching, and bitten to the heart.

Sauver un homme, épargner un tourment à un père, ménager la sensibilité d'une femme, ce n'est point faire une bonne oeuvre, c'est faire acte d'humanité.

People, in general, Athos said, only ask advice not to follow it; or if they do follow it, it is for the sake of having someone to blame for having given it.

Chi ha compagno ha padrone—'He who has a partner has a master.

En Italie, on ne paie la justice que si elle se tait, mais en France on ne la paie au contraire que quand elle parle.

The faults of a father cannot revert upon his children. Few have passed through this revolutionary period, into which we were born, without some stain of infamy or blood.