Alexandre Dumas Quotes

“When you compare the sorrows of real life to the pleasures of the imaginary one, you will never want to live again, only to dream forever.”

Source: The Count of Monte Cristo

“All generalizations are dangerous, even this one.”

Source: The Count of Monte Cristo

“There are two ways of seeing: with the body and with the soul. The body's sight can sometimes forget, but the soul remembers forever.”

“All human wisdom is summed up in two words; wait and hope.”

Source: The Count of Monte Cristo

“Women are never so strong as after their defeat.”

“There is neither happiness nor misery in the world; there is only the comparison of one state with another, nothing more. He who has felt the deepest grief is best able to experience supreme happiness. We must have felt what it is to die, Morrel, that we may appreciate the enjoyments of life.”

Source: Queen Margot, or Marguerite de Valois

Alexandre Dumas Quotes about life

“On what slender threads do life and fortune hang.”

Chapter 117 http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Count_of_Monte_Cristo/Chapter_117 Source: The Count of Monte Cristo (1845–1846) Context: Tell the angel who will watch over your future destiny, Morrel, to pray sometimes for a man who, like Satan, thought himself, for an instant, equal to God; but who now acknowledges, with Christian humility, that God alone possesses supreme power and infinite wisdom... There is neither happiness nor misery in the world; there is only the comparison of one state with another, nothing more. He who has felt the deepest grief is best able to experience supreme happiness. We must have felt what it is to die, Morrel, that we may appreciate the enjoyments of life.

“Tell the angel who will watch over your life to pray now and then for a man who, like Satan, believed himself for an instant to be equal to God, but who realized in all humility that supreme power and wisdom are in the hands of God alone.”

Source: The Count of Monte Cristo

“I do not cling to life sufficiently to fear death.”

Source: The Count of Monte Cristo

“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?”

Source: The Three Musketeers

“What I’ve loved most after you, is myself: that is, my dignity and that strength which made me superior to other men. That Strength was my life. You’ve broken it with a word, so I must die.”

Source: The Count of Monte Cristo

“True love always makes a man better, no matter what woman inspires it.”

Source: The Count of Monte Cristo

Alexandre Dumas Quotes about love

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

“…… When one loves, one is only too ready to believe one's love returned.”

“I am strong against everything, except against the death of those I love. He who dies gains; he who sees others die loses.”

Source: CliffsNotes on Dumas's The Three Musketeers

“Woman is sacred; the woman one loves is holy.”

Source: The Man in the Iron Mask

“Love is the most selfish of all the passions.”

Source: The Count of Monte Cristo

“Never fear quarrels, but seek hazardous adventures.”

Source: The Three Musketeers

Alexandre Dumas: Trending quotes

“I am not proud, but I am happy; and happiness blinds, I think, more than pride.”

Source: The Three Musketeers

“Moral wounds have this peculiarity - they may be hidden, but they never close; always painful, always ready to bleed when touched, they remain fresh and open in the heart.”

Source: The Count of Monte Cristo

“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.”

Source: The Count of Monte Cristo

Alexandre Dumas Quotes

“All human wisdom is contained in these words: Wait and hope!”

“How did I escape? With difficulty. How did I plan this moment? With pleasure.”

Also: Until the day when God shall deign to reveal the future to man, all human wisdom is summed up in these two words,— "Wait and hope". Chapter 117 http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Count_of_Monte_Cristo/Chapter_117 Variant: All human wisdom is contained in these two words - Wait and Hope Source: The Count of Monte Cristo (1845–1846)

“The difference between treason and patriotism is only a matter of dates.”

Source: The Count of Monte Cristo

“For all evils there are two remedies - time and silence.”

Source: The Count of Monte Cristo

“Learn ever to separate the king and the principle of royalty. The king is but man; royalty is the spirit of God.”

Source: The Count of Monte Cristo

Alexandre Dumas book Twenty Years After

Vingt ans après (Twenty Years After) (1845)
Context: Learn ever to separate the king and the principle of royalty. The king is but man; royalty is the spirit of God. When you are in doubt as to which you should serve, forsake the material appearance for the invisible principle, for this is everything.

“Memory makes the one, philosophy the other.”

“Learning does not make one learned: there are those who have knowledge and those who have understanding. The first requires memory and the second philosophy.”

Chapter 17 http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Count_of_Monte_Cristo/Chapter_17 The Count of Monte Cristo (1845–1846) Context: "You must teach me a small part of what you know," said Dantes, "if only to prevent your growing weary of me. I can well believe] that so learned a person as yourself would prefer absolute [[solitude to being tormented with the company of one as ignorant and uninformed as myself. If you will only agree to my request, I promise you never to mention another word about escaping." The abbe smiled. "Alas, my boy," said he, "human knowledge is confined within very narrow limits; and when I have taught you mathematics, physics, history, and the three or four modern languages with which I am acquainted, you will know as much as I do myself. 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."

“I have always had more dread of a pen, a bottle of ink, and a sheet of paper than of a sword or pistol.”

Source: The Count of Monte Cristo

“We are always in a hurry to be happy…; for when we have suffered a long time, we have great difficulty in believing in good fortune.”

Source: The Count of Monte Cristo

“Ah, lips that say one thing, while the heart thinks another”

Source: The Count of Monte Cristo

“One's work may be finished someday, but one's education never.”

Source: The Count of Monte Cristo

“Happiness is like those palaces in fairytales whose gates are guarded by dragons: We must fight in order to conquer it.”

“Fool that I am," said he,"that I did not tear out my heart the day I resolved to revenge myself".”

“Until the day when God shall deign to reveal the future to man, all human wisdom is summed up in these two words,-Wait and hope.”

Variant: What a fool I was, not to tear my heart out on the day when I resolved to avenge myself!
Source: The Count of Monte Cristo

“Abbe Faria: Here is your final lesson - do not commit the crime for which you now serve the sentence. God said, Vengeance is mine.
Edmond Dantes: I don't believe in God.
Abbe Faria: It doesn't matter. He believes in you.”

Source: The Count of Monte Cristo

“For the happy man prayer is only a jumble of words, until the day when sorrow comes to explain to him the sublime language by means of which he speaks to God.”

Source: The Count of Monte Cristo, V1

“I don’t think man was meant to attain happiness so easily. Happiness is like those palaces in fairy tales whose gates are guarded by dragons: we must fight in order to conquer it.”

Source: The Count of Monte Cristo

“You are very amiable, no doubt, but you would be charming if you would only depart.”

Source: The Count of Monte Cristo

“… The friends we have lost do not repose under the ground… they are buried deep in our hearts. It has been thus ordained that they may always accompany us…”

Source: The Three Musketeers

“All for one and one for all, united we stand divided we fall.”

Source: The Count of Monte Cristo

“Sometimes one has suffered enough to have the right to never say: I am too happy.”

Source: The Three Musketeers

Alexandre Dumas book The Black Tulip

Source: The Black Tulip

“To learn is not to know; there are the learners and the learned. Memory makes the one, philosophy the others.”

“Hatred is blind; rage carries you away; and he who pours out vengeance runs the risk of tasting a bitter draught.”

Source: The Count of Monte Cristo

“Drunk, if you like; so much the worse for those who fear wine, for it is because they have bad thoughts which they are afraid the liquor will extract from their hearts.”

Source: The Count of Monte Cristo

“… remember that what has once been done may be done again.”

Chapter 4 http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Count_of_Monte_Cristo/Chapter_4 Source: The Count of Monte Cristo (1845–1846)

“The merit of all things lies in their difficulty.”

Source: The Count of Monte Cristo

“Now I'd like someone to tell me there is no drama in real life!”

Source: The Three Musketeers

“Philosophy cannot be taught; it is the application of the sciences to truth.”

Source: The Count of Monte Cristo

“How is it that little children are so intelligent and men so stupid? It must be education that does it”

Source: The Count of Monte Cristo

“If God were suddenly condemned to live the life which He has inflicted upon men, He would kill Himself.”

“D’Artagnan: Why is Athos sitting by himself?
Aramis: He takes his drinking very seriously. Not to worry, he’ll be his usual charming self by morning.”

“Rogues are preferable to imbeciles because sometimes they take a rest.”

Source: The Three Musketeers

“True, I have raped history, but it has produced some beautiful offspring.”

“… but my friends call me Edmund Dantes.”

“A person who doubts himself is like a man who would enlist in the ranks of his enemies and bear arms against himself.”

Source: The Count of Monte Cristo

“Be happy, noble heart, be blessed for all the good thou hast done and wilt do hereafter, and let my gratitude remain in obscurity like your good deeds.”

“A weakened mind always sees everything through a black veil. The soul makes its own horizons; your soul is dark, which is why you see such a cloudy sky.”

Source: The Count of Monte Cristo

“And now, farewell to kindness, humanity and gratitude… I have substituted myself for Providence in rewarding the good; may the God of vengeance now yield me His place to punish the wicked.”

Variant: It is the way of weakened minds to see everything through a black cloud. The soul forms its own horizons; your soul is darkened, and consequently the sky of the future appears stormy and unpromising
Source: The Count of Monte Cristo

“So rapid is the flight of dreams upon the wings of imagination.”

Chapter 30 http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Count_of_Monte_Cristo/Chapter_30 Source: The Count of Monte Cristo (1845–1846)

“Be kind, aim for my heart.”

“Haste is a poor counselor”

Source: The Three Musketeers

“There is no friendship that cares about an overheard secret.”

Source: The Count of Monte Cristo

“A person who doubts himself is like a man who would enlist in the ranks of his enemies and bear arms against himself. He makes his failures certain by himself being the first person to be convinced of it.”

Source: The Three Musketeers

“Besides we are men, and after all it is our business to risk our lives.”

“I am hungry, feed me; I am bored, amuse me.”

Source: The Three Musketeers

“Life is a storm. One minute you will bathe under the sun and the next you will be shattered upon the rocks. That's when you shout, "Do your worst, for I will do mine!" and you will be remembered forever.”

Source: The Count of Monte Cristo

“For there are two distinct sorts of ideas: Those that proceed from the head and those that emanate from the heart.”

Source: The Count of Monte Cristo

“In business, sir, one has no friends, only correspondents.”

Variant: ... for there are two distinct sorts of ideas, those that proceed from the head and those that emanate from the heart.
Source: The Count of Monte Cristo

“… know you not that you are my sun by day, and my star by night? By my faith! I was in deepest darkness till you appeared and illuminated all.”