"There is neither happiness nor unhappiness in this world; there is only the comparison of one state with another. Only a man who has felt ultimate despair is capable of feeling ultimate bliss. It is necessary to have wished for death in order to know how good it is to live.....the sum of all human wisdom will be contained in these two words: Wait and Hope."
— Alexandre Dumas (The Count of Monte Cristo)

"Woman is sacred; the woman one loves is holy."
— Alexandre Dumas (The Count of Monte Cristo)

"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"
— Alexandre Dumas

"Never fear quarrels, but seek hazardous adventures."
— Alexandre Dumas

"Rogues are preferable to imbeciles because sometimes they take a rest."
— Alexandre Dumas

"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."
— Alexandre Dumas

"As a general rule...people ask for advice only in order not to follow it; or if they do follow it, in order to have someone to blame for giving it."
— Alexandre Dumas

"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."
— Alexandre Dumas (The Count of Monte Cristo)

"One's work may be finished someday, but one's education never."
— Alexandre Dumas

"It's necessary to have wished for death in order to know how good it is to live."
— Alexandre Dumas (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."
— Alexandre Dumas

"All generalizations are dangerous, even this one."
— Alexandre Dumas

"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."
— Alexandre Dumas (The Count of Monte Cristo)

"If God were suddenly condemned to live the life which He has inflicted upon men, He would kill Himself. "
— Alexandre Dumas

"...but my friends call me Edmund Dantes."
— Alexandre Dumas (The Count of Monte Cristo)

"True love always makes a man better, no matter what woman inspires it."
— Alexandre Dumas

"I have always had more dread of a pen, a bottle of ink, and a sheet of paper than of a sword or pistol."
— Alexandre Dumas (The Count of Monte Cristo)

"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."
— Alexandre Dumas (The Three Musketeers)

"All for one and one for all."
— Alexandre Dumas

"For there are two distinct sorts of ideas: Those that proceed from the head and those that emanate from the heart."
— Alexandre Dumas

"So, preferring death to capture, I accomplished the most astonishing deeds, and which, more then once, showed me that the too great care we take of our bodies is the only obstacle to the sucess of those projects which require rapid decision, and vigorous and determined execution.
In reality, when you have once devoted your life to your enterprises, you are no longer the equal of other men, or, rather, other men are no longer your equals, and whosoever has taken this resolution, feels his strength and resources doubled."
— Alexandre Dumas (The Count of Monte Cristo)

"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."
— Alexandre Dumas (The Count of Monte Cristo)

""Fool that I am," said he,"that I did not tear out my heart the day I resolved to revenge myself"."
— Alexandre Dumas (The Count of Monte Cristo)

"No, I slept as I always do when I am bored and have not the courage to amuse myself, or when I am hungry and have not the desire to eat.--The Count of Monte Cristo"
— Alexandre Dumas

"True, I have raped history, but it has produced some beautiful offspring."
— Alexandre Dumas

"Sometimes one has suffered enough to have the right to never say: I am too happy."
— Alexandre Dumas (The Black Tulip)

"You are very amiable, no doubt, but you would be charming if you would only depart."
— Alexandre Dumas (The Three Musketeers)

"So much the worse for those who fear wine, for it is because they have some bad thoughts which they are afraid the liquor will extract from their hearts."
— Alexandre Dumas (The Count of Monte Cristo)

"...women are never so strong as after their defeat."
— Alexandre Dumas (Queen Margot, or, Marguerite de Valois)

"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. You must look into that storm and shout as you did in Rome. Do your worst, for I will do mine! Then the fates will know you as we know you: as Albert Mondego, the man!"
— Alexandre Dumas

"I am strong against everything, except against the death of those I love. He who dies gains; he who sees others die loses."
— Alexandre Dumas (Signature Classics - The Man in the Iron Mask)

"'Why do you mention my father?' screamed he; 'Why do you mingle a recollection of him with the affairs of today?'
'Because I am he who saved your father's life when he wished to destroy himself, as you do today-because I am the man who sent the purse to your young sister, and the Paraon to Old Morrel-because I am the Edmond Dantes who nursed you, a child, on my knees.'"
— Alexandre Dumas (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."
— Alexandre Dumas (Queen Margot, or, Marguerite de Valois)

"Mastery of language affords one remarkable opportunities."
— Alexandre Dumas

"All human wisdom is contained in these two words--"Wait and Hope.""
— Alexandre Dumas (The Count of Monte Cristo)

"As and general rule,'he had once said,'people ask for advice only in order not to follow it; or, if they do follow it, in order to have someone to blame for giving it.'-Athos "
— Alexandre Dumas (The Three Musketeers)

"How did I escape? With difficulty. How did I plan this moment? With pleasure. "
— Alexandre Dumas (The Count of Monte Cristo)

"I prefer the wicked rather than the foolish. The wicked sometimes rest."
— Alexandre Dumas

"If it is ones lot to be cast among fools, one must learn foolishness.-The Count of Monte Cristo"
— Alexandre Dumas

"Happiness is egotistical."
— Alexandre Dumas

"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."
— Alexandre Dumas (The Count of Monte Cristo)

"Il y a une femme dans toutes les affaires; aussitôt qu'on me fait un rapport, je dis: 'Cherchez la femme'.

(Les Mohicans de Paris) 1854"
— Alexandre Dumas

"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."
— Alexandre Dumas

"My dear fellow " Said Albert, turning to Franz " here is an admirable adventure; we will fill our carriage with pistols, blunderbusses, and double-barreled shotguns. Luigi Vampa comes to take us, and we take him - we bring him back to Rome , and present him to him holiness the Pope, who asks how he can repay so great a service; Then we merely ask for a cariage and a pair of horses, and we will see the Carnival in the carriage , and doubtless the Roman people will crown us at the capitol , and proclaim us, like Curtius and the veiled Horatius, the preservers of there country."

Whilst Albert proposed this scheme, signor Pastrini's face assumed an expression impossible to describe."
— Alexandre Dumas (The Count of Monte Cristo)

"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."
— Alexandre Dumas (The Man in the Iron Mask)

"When you are in doubt as to which you should serve forsake the material appearance for the invisible principle for this is everything."
— Alexandre Dumas (Twenty Years After)

"It is quite rare for God to provide a great man at the necessary moment to carry out some great deep, which is why when this unusual combination of circumstance does occur, history at once records the name of the chosen one and recommends him to the admiration of posterity. "
— Alexandre Dumas (The Black Tulip)

"There are some catastrophes that a poor writer's pen cannot describe and which he is obliged to leave to the imagination of his readers with a bald statement of the facts."
— Alexandre Dumas (The Black Tulip)

"You scholars, you're in communication with the devil."
— Alexandre Dumas (The Black Tulip)

"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."
— Alexandre Dumas