Quotes from Alexandre Dumas

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

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.

Within six months, if I am not dead, I shall have seen you again, madam--even if I have to overturn the world.

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.

Everyone knows that God protects drunkards and lovers.

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

In every country where independence has taken the place of liberty, the first desire of a manly heart is to possess a weapon which at once renders him capable of defence or attack, and, by rendering its owner fearsome, makes him feared.

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 not the tree that forsakes the flower, but the flower that forsakes the tree.

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

In general, people only ask for advice that they may not follow it; or, if they should follow it, that they may have somebody to blame for having given it.

It is only the dead who do not return.

Well, father, in the shipwreck of life, for life is an eternal shipwreck of our hopes, I cast into the sea my useless encumbrance, that is all, and I remain with my own will, disposed to live perfectly alone, and, consequently, perfectly free. (Eugenie to her father)

Does the open wound in another's breast soften the pain of the gaping wound in our own? Or does the blood which is welling from another man's side staunch that which is pouring from our own? Does the general anguish of our fellow creatures lessen our own private and particular anguish? No, no, each suffers on his own account, each struggles with his own grief, each sheds his own tears.

God is merciful to all, as he has been to you; he is first a father, then a judge.

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.

My son, be worthy of your noble name, worthily borne by your ancestors for over five hundred years. Remember it's by courage, and courage alone, that a nobleman makes his way nowadays. Don't be afraid of opportunities, and seek out adventures. My son, all I have to give you is fifteen ecus, my horse, and the advice you've just heard. Make the most of these gifts, and have a long, happy life.

for there are two distinct sorts of ideas, those that proceed from the head and those that emanate from the heart.

I love the life you've always made so sweet for me and I'd regret it if I had to die.' 'Do you mean to say that if I left you---' 'I'd die, yes.' 'Then you love me?

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.

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

We frequently pass so near to happiness without seeing, without regarding it, or if we do see and regard it, yet without recognizing it.

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

Time, dear friend, time brings round opportunity; opportunity is the martingale of man. The more we have ventured the more we gain, when we know how to wait.