The Three Musketeers

by Alexandre Dumas

But, it is well known, what strikes the capricious mind of the poet is not always what affects the mass of readers.

D’Artagnan relates that on his first visit to Monsieur de Tréville, captain of the king’s Musketeers, he met in the antechamber three young men, serving in the illustrious corps into which he was soliciting the honour of being received, bearing the names of Athos, Porthos, and Aramis.

Never fear quarrels, but seek adventures. I have taught you how to handle a sword; you have thews of iron, a wrist of steel. Fight on all occasions. Fight the more for duels being forbidden, since, consequently, there is twice as much courage in fighting.

unworthy of a man to give way to his feelings;

“A weak obstacle is sometimes sufficient to overthrow a great design.”

The captain of the Musketeers was therefore admired, feared, and loved; and this constitutes the zenith of human fortune.

Woman was created for our destruction, and it is from her we inherit all our miseries.”

D’Artagnan was amazed to note by what fragile and unknown threads the destinies of nations and the lives of men are suspended.

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.

‘Unlucky at play, lucky in love.’

“People, in general,” he said, “only ask advice not to follow it; or if they do follow it, it is for the sake of having someone to blame for having given it.”

A secret voice whispered to him, at the bottom of his heart, that he was but an instrument of vengeance, that he was only caressed till he had given death; but pride, but self-love, but madness silenced this voice and stifled its murmurs.