Alexandre Dumas

“The ship drew on and had safely passed the strait, which some volcanic shock has made between the Calasareigne and Jaros islands; had doubled Pomegue, and approached the harbor under topsails, jib, and spanker, but so slowly and sedately that the idlers, with that instinct which is the forerunner of evil, asked one another what misfortune could have happened on board. However, those experienced in navigation saw plainly that if any accident had occurred, it was not to the vessel herself, for she bore down with all the evidence of being skilfully handled, the anchor a-cockbill, the jib-boom guys already eased off, and standing by the side of the pilot, who was steering the Pharaon towards the narrow entrance of the inner port, was a young man, who, with activity and vigilant eye, watched every motion of the ship, and repeated each direction of the pilot.”

“...paleness is always looked upon as a strong proof of aristocratic descent and distinguished breeding.”

“I know the world is a drawing-room, from which we must retire politely and honestly; that is, with a bow, and our debts of honor paid.”

“There is nothing more galling to angry people than the coolness of those on whom they wish to vent their spleen.”

“Without words, protestations, or vows, I have laid my life in your hands. You fail me, and, I repeat once more, you are quite right in acting thus; nevertheless in losing you I lose part of my life.”

“Un homme de cinquante ans ne tient pas longtemps rancune à une femme de vingt-trois.”

“Immediately, and according to custom, the ramparts of Fort Saint-Jean were covered with spectators; it is always an event at Marseilles for a ship to come into port, especially when this ship, like the Pharaon, has been built, rigged, and laden at the old Phocee docks, and belongs to an owner of the city.”

“Avete mai provato per qualcuno una di quelle irresistibili simpatie che fanno sì che vedendo una persona per la prima volta, credete di conoscerlo da lungo tempo, e vi domandate dove è quando l'abbiate vista, cosicché, non potendo ricordarvi né il luogo né il tempo finite con il credere che sia stato in un mondo anteriore al nostri, e che questa simpatia sia un ricordo che si risvegli?”

“One must ask for death to know how good it is to live”

“El carruaje partió inmediatamente, y aprovechando Artagnan la oscuridad que reinaba en la bóveda bajo la cual pasaba, se arrojó en brazos del prisionero exclamando: - ¡Rochefort! ¿Sois vos? ¡No me equivoco...!”

“Hard decisions, sacrifices doesn’t keep you warm at night, life’s too damn short, too damn long to continue without someone at your side”

“On the 24th of February, 1810, the look-out at Notre-Dame de la Garde signalled the three-master, the Pharaon from Smyrna, Trieste, and Naples.”

“I'm sure you're very nice, but you'd be even nicer if you went away.”

“Pooh! Women say those things, but never do them.”

“Sólo el que ha experimentado el colmo del infortunio puede sentir la felicidad suprema”

“to seek a quarrel with a man is a bad method of pleasing the woman who loves that man.”

“Friendship throws out deep roots in honest hearts, D'Artagnan. Believe me, it is only the evil-minded who deny friendship; they cannot understand it.”

“Des par tous et tous par un.”

“I never play, because I am not rich enough to afford to lose or poor enough to want to win. Maximilien Morrel, The Count of Monte Cristo”

“Having reached the summit of his vengeance by the slow and tortuous route that he had followed, he had looked over the far side of the mountain and into the abyss of doubt.”

“Nothing succeeds like success.”

“And how did this misfortune occur?" inquired the latter, resuming the interrupted conversation.”

“Un pour tous, et tous pour un!”

“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.”

“On what slender threads do life and fortune hang… !”

“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.”

“It is only the dead who do not return.”

“The count came back to young Morcerf.'Don't you think,' he said, 'on reflection that you were wrong to speak in that way about your mother-in-law in front of Debray?''Please, Count,' Morcerf said. 'I beg you, don't use that word in anticipation.”

“My son, philosophy as I understand it, is reducible to no rules by which it can be learned; it is the amalgamation of all the sciences, the golden cloud which bears the soul to heaven.”

“but there is no need to know danger in order to fear it: indeed, it may be observed, that it is usually unknown perils that inspire the greatest terror.”

“We are entitled to violate history, provided that it results in handsome offspring.”

“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.”

“The King! I thought him enough of a philosopher to realize that there is no such thing as murder in politics. You know as well as I do, my dear boy, that in politics there are no people, only ideas; no feelings, only interests. In politics, you don't kill a man, you remove an obstacle, that's all.”

“This will do," said he, "and from this letter, which might have ruined me, I will make my fortune. Now to the work I have in hand." And after having assured himself that the prisoner was gone, the deputy procureur hastened to the house of his betrothed.”

“My opinion is, that all these old podestas, these ancient condottieri, — for the Cavalcanti have commanded armies and governed provinces, — my opinion, I say, is, that they have buried their millions in corners, the secret of which they have transmitted only to their eldest sons, who have done the same from generation to generation; and the proof of this is seen in their yellow and dry appearance, like the florins of the republic, which, from being constantly gazed upon, have become reflected in them.”

“I came to Paris with four écus in my pocket, and I’d have fought with anybody who told me I was in no condition to buy the Louvre.”

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

“Nothing makes time pass or shortens the way like a thought that absorbs in itself all the faculties of the one who is thinking. External existence is then like a sleep of which this thought is the dream. Under its influence, time has no more measure, space has no more distance.”

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

“Kitty: I thought your ladyship was ill. I wanted to help you.Lady deWinter: I ill? Do you take me for a weak woman? When I am insulted I do not feel ill - I avenge myself. Do you hear?”

“So far, then," said Danglars, mentally, "all has gone as I would have it. I am, temporarily, commander of the Pharaon, with the certainty of being permanently so, if that fool of a Caderousse can be persuaded to hold his tongue. My only fear is the chance of Dantes being released. But, there, he is in the hands of Justice; and," added he with a smile, "she will take her own." So saying, he leaped into a boat, desiring to be rowed on board the Pharaon, where M. Morrel had agreed to meet him.”

“Starvation!" exclaimed the abbe, springing from his seat. "Why, the vilest animals are not suffered to die by such a death as that. The very dogs that wander houseless and homeless in the streets find some pitying hand to cast them a mouthful of bread; and that a man, a Christian, should be allowed to perish of hunger in the midst of other men who call themselves Christians, is too horrible for belief. Oh, it is impossible - utterly impossible!”

“God may sometimes appear to forget, when his justice is resting; but the time always comes when he remembers...”

“and I will say to you, rude as it may seem, `My brother, you sacrifice greatly to pride; you may be above others, but above you there is God.”

“Why, in truth, sir," was Monte Cristo's reply, "man is but an ugly caterpillar for him who studies him through a solar microscope; but you said, I think, that I had nothing else to do. Now, really, let me ask, sir, have you? — do you believe you have anything to do? or to speak in plain terms, do you really think that what you do deserves being called anything?”

“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.”

“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.”

“Ah, what he is; that is quite another thing. I have seen so many remarkable things in him, that if you would have me really say what I think, I shall reply that I really do look upon him as one of Byron's heroes, whom misery has marked with a fatal brand; some Manfred, some Lara, some Werner, one of those wrecks, as it were, of some ancient family, who, disinherited of their patrimony, have achieved one by the force of their adventurous genius, which has placed them above the laws of society.”

“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 apparant.”

“Oh Heaven! You sometimes bear with such injustice on earth, that I understand why there are wretches who doubt in your existence.”