Alexandre Dumas

“Rien n'est plus courageux qu'un cœur patient.”

“Jamais homme bien amoureux n'a laissé les horloges faire paisiblement leur chemin.”

“It is not the tree that forsakes the flower, but the flower that forsakes the tree.”

“Very well, young man, very well," Treville went on, "I know those airs. I came to Paris with four ecus in my pocket, and I'd have fought with anybody who told me I was in no condition to buy the Louvre.”

“I do not often laugh, sir,” answered the unknown. “As you may yourself discover by the expression of my continence. But yet I mean to preserve the right of laughing when I please.”

“Pain anguish and suffering in human life are always in proportion to the strength with which a man is endowed. We will not pretend to say that Heaven always apportions to a man's capability of endurance the anguish with which he afflicts him...Suffering is in proportion to the strength which has been accorded in other words the weak suffer more where the trial is the same than the strong.”

“Monsieur Man-in-a-hurry, you can find me without running—ME, you understand?”

“To be a woman condemned to a wretched and disgraceful punishment is no impediment to beauty, but it is an insurmountable obstacle to power. Like all persons of real genius, her ladyship well knew what accorded with her nature and her means. Poverty disgusted her -subjection deprived her of two-thirds of her greatness. Her ladyship was only a queen amongst queens: the enjoyment of satisfied pride was essential to her sway. To command beings of an inferior nature, was, to her, rather a humiliation than a pleasure.”

“As for herself, she returned to her seat with a smile of savage scorn upon her lips, and she blasphemously repeated the fearful name of that God by whom she had just sworn, without ever having learned to know Him. "My God!" said she. "Fanatical fool! -My God is myself; and whoever will assist in my revenge!”

“Come here, Grimaud," said Athos. To punish you for having spoken without leave my friend, you must eat this piece of paper: then, to reward you for the service which you will have rendered us, you shall afterwards drink this glass of wine. Here is the letter first: chew it hard." Grimaud smiled, and with his eyes fixed on the glass which Athos filled to the very brim, chewed away at the paper, and finally swallowed it. "Bravo, Master Grimaud!" said Athos. "and now take this. Good! I will dispense with your saying thank you." Grimaud silently swallowed the glass of Bordeaux; but during the whole time that this pleasant operation lasted, his eyes, which were fixed upon the heavens, spoke a language which, though mute, was not therefore the least expressive.”

“Consider that, if you talk, if you babble, you will sacrifice the head of your master, who has so much confidence in your fidelity that he has answered for you to us. But remember also that if by any fault of yours any such calamity should befall d'Artagnanan I will hunt you out wherever you may be and completely perforate you." "Oh, sir!" cried Planchet, humiliated at the suspicion, and particularly alarmed by the calmness of the musketeer. "And I," said Porthos, rolling his great eyes, "remember, that I will skin you alive." "Ah, sir!" "And I," said Aramis, with his soft and melodious voice, "remember, that I will roast you at a slow fire, as if you were an untutored savage." "Ah, sir!" And Planchet began to cry; but we cannot venture to say whether it was from terror on account of the threats he had heard, or from being affected at seeing so close a union of hearts between the four friends.”

“D'Artagnan, my friend, thou art brave, thou art prudent, thou hast excellent qualities, but- women will destroy thee!" -D'Artagnan”

“Athos liked every one to exercise his own free-will. He never gave his advice before it was demanded and even then it must be demanded twice. "In general, people only ask for advice," he said "that they may not follow it or if they should follow it that they may have somebody to blame for having given it".”

“Everyone knows that God protects drunkards and lovers.”

“Il est mon maître et je suis son esclave; il a le droit de ne rien voir.”

“- Peut-être, dit Athos; mais, en tout cas, écoutez bien ceci: assassinez ou faites assassiner le duc de Buckingham, peut m'importe! je ne le connais pas, d'ailleurs c'est un Anglais; mais ne touchez pas du bout du doigt à un seul cheveux de d'Artagnan, qui est un fidèle ami qu j'aime et que je défends, ou je vous le jure sur la tête de mon père, le crime que vous aurez commis sera le dernier.”

“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.”

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

“I hate this life of the fashionable world, always ordered, measured, ruled, like our music-paper. What I have always wished for, desired, and coveted, is the life of an artist, free and independent, relying only on my own resources, and accountable only to myself.”

“Listen,' said Morrel; 'it is not the first time you have contemplated our present position, which is a serious and urgent one; I do not think it is a moment to give way to useless sorrow; leave that for those who like to suffer at their leisure and indulge their grief in secret. There are such in the world, and God will doubtless reward them in heaven for their resignation on earth, but those who mean to contend must not lose one precious moment, but must return immediately the blow which fortune strikes. Do you intend to struggle against our ill-fortune?..”

“What tender threads do life and death hang”

“Gli uomini veramente generosi sono sempre pronti a divenire compassionevoli allorché la disgrazia del nemico supera i limiti del loro odio.”

“Patience is not my dominant virtue. --D'Artagnan”

“Your bitter memories still have time to turn into sweet ones.”

“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.”

“- Poiché mi sembrate un intenditore d'arte, vi chiedo il permesso di mostrarvi un giorno o l'altro la mia galleria, ricca di quadri antichi, tutti di grandi autori; i moderni non mi piacciono.- Avete ragione; essi hanno, almeno, un grande difetto: di non aver avuto ancora il tempo di diventare antichi.”

“Già, siete barone per i domestici, signore per i giornalisti, cittadino per i vostri elettori. Sono sfumature che si addicono assai a un governo costituzionale. Capisco perfettamente.”

“To save a man and thereby to spare a father's agony and a mother's feelings is not to do a noble deed, it is but an act of humanity.”

“I know what happiness and what despair are, and I never make a jest of such feelings. Take it, then, but in exchange — ”

“There are some situations which men understand by instinct, by which reason is powerless to explain; in such cases the greatest poet is he who gives utterance to the most natural and vehement outburst of sorrow. Those who hear the bitter cry are as much impressed as if they listened to an entire poem, and when th sufferer is sincere they are right in regarding his outburst as sublime.”

“But that's not the name of a man, it's the name of a mountain! (...)"It is my name," Athos said calmly."But you said your name was d'Artagnan.""I?""Yes, you.""That is to say, someone said to me: 'You are M. d'Artagnan?' I replied: 'You think so?' My guards shouted that they were sure of it. I did not want to vex them. Besides, I might have been mistaken.”

“Follow me. He who lives will see. - D'Artagnan”

“Women and doors - did I not tell you, friend Porthos, that they are always to be managed by gentleness? - D'Artagnan”

“Hoy, caballero, tenemos otros intereses; cada edad trae consigo los suyos; y como hoy nos entendemos hablando, como en otra época nos entendíamos sin hablar, hablemos, si os parece.”

“Yet man will never be perfect until he learns to create and destroy; he does know how to destroy, and that is half the battle.”

“In those times panics were common, and few days passed without some city or other registering in its archives an event of this kind. There were nobles, who made war against each other; there was the king, who made war against the cardinal; there was Spain, which made war against the king. Then, in addition to these concealed or public, secret or open wars, there were robbers, mendicants, Huguenots, wolves, and scoundrels, who made war upon everybody. The citizens always took up arms readily against thieves, wolves or scoundrels, often against nobles or Huguenots, sometimes against the king, but never against cardinal or Spain. It resulted, then, from this habit that on the said first Monday of April, 1625, the citizens, on hearing the clamor, and seeing neither the red-and-yellow standard nor the livery of the Duc de Richelieu, rushed toward the hostel of the Jolly Miller. When arrived there, the cause of the hubbub was apparent to all.”

“Il y avait autour de la table cette hilarité bruyante et cette liberté individuelle qui accompagnent, chez les gens de condition inférieure, la fin des repas. Ceux qui étaient mécontents de leur place s'étaient levés de table et avaient été chercher d'autres voisins. Tout le monde commençait à parler à la fois, et personne ne s'occupait de répondre à ce que son interlocuteur lui disait, mais seulement à ses propres pensées.”

“Look, look,' cried the count, seizing the young man's hands - "look, for on my soul it is curious. Here is a man who had resigned himself to his fate, who was going to the scaffold to die - like a coward, it is true, but he was about to die without resistance. Do you know what gave him strength? - do you know what consoled him? It was, that another partook of his punishment - that another partook of his anguish - that another was to die before him. Lead two sheep to the butcher's, two oxen to the slaughterhouse, and make one of them understand that his companion will not die; the sheep will bleat for pleasure, the ox will bellow with joy. But man - man, who God created in his own image - man, upon whom God has laid his first, his sole commandment, to love his neighbour - man, to whom God has given a voice to express his thoughts - what is his first cry when he hears his fellowman is saved? A blasphemy. Honour to man, this masterpiece of nature, this king of the creation!”

“And now,' said the unknown, 'farewell kindness, humanity, and gratitude! Farewell to all the feelings that expand the heart! I have been heaven's substitute to recompense the good - now the god of vengeance yields to me his power to punish the wicked!”

“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.”

“Edmond Dantes: I don’t believe in God.Abbe Faria: That doesn’t matter, He believes in you…”

“Yes; I am a supercargo; pen, ink, and paper are my tools, and without my tools I am fit for nothing.”

“Unfortunates, who ought to begin with God, do not have any hope in him till they have exhausted all other means of deliverance.”

“The king! I thought he was philosopher enough to allow that there was no murder in politics. In politics, my dear fellow, you know, as well as I do, there are no men, but ideas - no feelings, but interests; in politics we do not kill a man, we only remove an obstacle, that is all.”

“Darling, has not the count just told us that all human wisdom is summed up in two words? Wait and hope.”

“That is a dream also; only he has remained asleep, while you have awakened; and who knows which of you is the most fortunate?”

“We’ll go where the air is pure, where all sounds are soothing, where, no matter how proud one may be, one feels humble and finds oneself small- in short, we’ll go to the sea. I love the sea as one loves a mistress and I long for her when I haven’t seen her for some time”

“God will give me justice”

“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.”

“It was clear that Mme Danglars was suffering from one of those nervous irritations which women are often unable to explain even to themselves.”