The Count of Monte Cristo

by Alexandre Dumas

to remember that what has once been done may be done again.

misfortune is needed to bring to light the treasures of the human intellect.

heaven, and where God writes in azure with letters of diamonds.

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.

Happiness or unhappiness is the secret known but to one's self and the walls

"In business, sir," said he, "one has no friends, only correspondents."

"Ah, thus it is that our material origin is revealed," cried Sinbad; "we frequently pass so near to happiness without seeing, without regarding it, or if we do see and regard it, yet without recognizing it.

that nothing is impossible to a full purse or well-lined pocketbook,

In every country where independence has taken the place of liberty, the first desire of a manly heart is to possess a weapon,

I would do more single-handed by the means of gold than you and all your troop could effect with stilettos, pistols, carbines, and blunderbusses included.

Decidedly man is an ungrateful and egotistical animal.

fishermen.

replied; 'he has perished

For all evils there are two remedies—time and silence.

I have never heard it said that so much harm had been done by the dead during six thousand years as is wrought by the living in a single day.

a woman will often, from mere willfulness, prefer that which is dangerous to that which is safe.

simplicity is always perfection."

I have only two adversaries—I will not say two conquerors, for with perseverance I subdue even them,—they are time and distance.

Every man has a devouring passion in his heart,

what is the marvellous?—that which we do not understand. What is it that we really desire?—that which we cannot obtain.

Besides the pleasure, there is always remorse from the indulgence of our passions,

As for his wife, he bowed to her, as some husbands do to their wives, but in a way that bachelors will never comprehend, until a very extensive code is published on conjugal life.

'He who giveth to the poor lendeth to the Lord.'

for love lends wings to our desires;

Hasty actions are generally bad ones.

every man burdened with thoughts of the past, he was occupied with seeking the thread of his own ideas in those of the speaker.

life is an eternal shipwreck of our hopes—I

everyone was too much occupied in his or her own affairs to think of theirs.

in this world of ours, each person views things through a certain medium, and so is prevented from seeing in the same light as others,

"the friends that we have lost do not repose in the bosom of the earth, but are buried deep in our hearts,

"it is the infirmity of our nature always to believe ourselves much more unhappy than those who groan by our sides!"—"

There is neither happiness nor misery in the world; there is only the comparison of one state with another, nothing more.