The Count of Monte Cristo

by Alexandre Dumas

you know the Italian proverb: chi ha compagno, ha padrone.

God can change the future, He cannot alter even an instant of the past.

happiness makes even wicked men good,

He had just condemned a man to perpetual incarceration, but an innocent man, poised on the brink of good fortune, depriving him not only of freedom, but also of happiness. He was not a judge this time, but an executioner.

Danglars was one of those calculating men who are born with a pen behind their ear and an inkwell instead of a heart. To him, everything in this world was subtraction or multiplication, and a numeral

was much dearer than a man, when it was a numeral that would increase the total (while a man might reduce it).

to make his way, Villefort will sacrifice everything, even his father.’

in politics there are no people, only ideas; no feelings, only interests. In politics, you don’t kill a man, you remove an obstacle, that’s all.

You people, who hold power, have only what can be bought for money; we, who are waiting to gain power, have what is given out of devotion.’

‘There is a very profound axiom in law,

unless an evil thought is born in a twisted mind, human nature is repelled by crime.

if you wish to find the guilty party, first discover whose interests the crime serves!

‘human knowledge is very limited

Learning does not make one learned: there are those who have knowledge and those who have understanding. The first requires memory, the second philosophy.’

‘Philosophy cannot be taught. Philosophy is the union of all acquired knowledge and the genius that applies it:

sooner or later, a righteous man is rewarded and a wicked one punished.’

this man, a Christian, died of hunger in the midst of other men who also call themselves Christians!

‘I am still more afraid of a dead man’s curse than of a living man’s hatred.’

‘Two who were jealous of him, one for love, the other for ambition:

the dead know everything.

‘In business,

one has no friends, only associates.’

‘Nothing inspires a man like a solid argument,’

He was one of those who do not court danger but who, if it presents itself, retain all their composure in confronting it;