The Count of Monte Cristo

by Alexandre Dumas

Misfortune is needed to plumb certain mysterious depths in the understanding of men; pressure is needed to explode the charge. My captivity concentrated all my faculties on a single point. They had previously been dispersed, now they clashed in a narrow space; and, as you know, the clash of clouds produces electricity, electricity produces lightning and lightning gives light.’

The heart breaks when it has swelled too much in the warm breath of hope, then finds itself enclosed in cold reality.

it seemed as though joy could not penetrate all at once into a soul so deeply wounded but that it had to prepare itself for tender feelings, as the souls of others need to be prepared for violent ones.

‘your imagination really is running away with you … You will not love me for very long. A man who makes such poetry will never be happy, languishing in such a banal passion as ours …