Alexandre Dumas Quotes
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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.
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There is a woman in every case; as soon as they bring me a report, I say, 'Look for the woman'.
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My friend, the pleasures to which we are not accustomed oppress us more than the griefs with which we are familiar.
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What would you not have accomplished if you had been free?" "Possibly nothing at all; the overflow of my brain would probably, in a state of freedom, have evaporated in a thousand follies; misfortune is needed to bring to light the treasures of the human intellect. Compression is needed to explode gunpowder. Captivity has brought my mental faculties to a focus; and you are well aware that from the collision of clouds electricity is produced — from electricity, lightning, from lightning, illumination.
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Hatred is blind; rage carries you away; and he who pours out vengeance runs the risk of tasting a bitter draught.
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'Weep,' said Athos, 'weep, heart full of love, youth, and life! Alas, would I could weep like you!'
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Capricious and unfaithful, the king wished to be called Louis the Just and Louis the Chaste. Posterity will find a difficulty in understanding this character, which history explains only by facts and never by reason.
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You are young, and your bitter recollections have time to change themselves into sweet remembrances.'
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For there are two distinct sorts of ideas: Those that proceed from the head and those that emanate from the heart.
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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!
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'We are never quits with those who oblige us,' was Dantes' reply; 'for when we do not owe them money, we owe them gratitude.'
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Ah," said the jailer, "do not always brood over what is impossible, or you will be mad in a fortnight.
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The custom and fashion of today will be the awkwardness and outrage of tomorrow - so arbitrary are these transient laws.
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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.
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If you wish to discover the guilty person, first find out to whom the crime might be useful.
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I have no will, unless it be the will never to decide. I have been so overwhelmed by the many storms that have broken over my head, that I am become passive in the hands of the Almighty, like a sparrow in the talons of an eagle. I live, because it is not ordained for me to die.
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Truly generous men are always ready to become sympathetic when their enemy’s misfortune surpasses the limits of their hatred.
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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.
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The air in Provence is impregnated with the aroma of garlic, which makes it very healthful to breathe.
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There are people who are willing to suffer and swallow their tears at leisure, and God will no 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.
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But Valentine, why despair, why always paint the future in such sombre hues?" Maximilien asked. "Because, my friend, I judge it by the past.
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A rogue does not laugh in the same way that an honest man does; a hypocrite does not shed the tears of a man of good faith. 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.
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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.
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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".