The Count of Monte Cristo Quotes

“Edmond Dantes: I don’t believe in God.

Abbe Faria: That doesn’t matter, He believes in you…”
― Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo

“(...) the tree forsakes not the flower: the flower falls from the tree.”
― Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo

“One must ask for death to know how good it is to live”
― Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo

“but there is no need to know danger in order to fear it: indeed, it may be observed, that it is usually unknown perils that inspire the greatest terror.”
― Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo

“He decided it was human hatred and not divine vengeance that had plunged him into this abyss. He doomed these unknown men to every torment that his inflamed imagination could devise, while still considering that the most frightful were too mild and, above all, too brief for them: torture was followed by death, and death brought, if not repose, at least an insensibility that resembled it.”
― Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo

“But now to die would be, indeed, to give way to the sarcasm of destiny.”
― Alexander Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo

“Senseless!" he said. "The day when I resolved to take my revenge. . . senseless, not to have torn out my heart!”
― Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo

“And that you alone, among the men whom you do not recognize as your brothers- for you have said so," observed Villefort, in a tone that faltered somewhat- "you alone are perfect.”
― Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo

“All human wisdom is summed up in these two words,--'wait' and 'hope'.”
― Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo

“I shall get nothing from these fools,' he muttered; 'and I am very much afraid of being here between a drunkard and a coward. Here's an envious fellow making himself boozy on wine when he ought to be nursing his wrath, and here is a fool who sees the woman he loves stolen from under his nose and takes on like a big baby. Yet this Catalan has eyes that glisten like those of the vengeful Spaniards, Sicilians, and Calabrians, and the other has fists big enough to crush an ox at one blow. Unquestionably, Edmond's star is in the ascendant, and he will marry the splendid girl--he will captain, too, and laugh at us all, unless'--a sinister smile passed over Danglars' lips--'unless I take a hand in the affair,' he added.”
― Alexander Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo

“Look, Fernand, your eyes are better than mine. I believe I see double. You know wine is a deceiver; but I should say it was two lovers walking side by side, and hand in hand. Heaven forgive me, they do not know that we can see them, and they are actually embracing!”
― Alexander Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo

“If I succeed in mentally constructing a fortress from which it is impossible to escape, this conceived fortress either will be the same as the real one - and in this case it is certain we shall never escape from here, but at least we will achieve the serenity of one who knows he is here because he could be nowhere else - or it will be a fortress from which escape is even more impossible than from here - and this, then, is a sign that here an opportunity if escape exists: we have only to identify the point where the imagined fortress does not coincide with the real one and then find it.”
― Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo

“Che cosa è la morte per me? Un grado di più nella calma, e forse due nel silenzio.”
― Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo

“All human wisdom is contained in these two words- Wait and Hope.”
― Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo

“By degrees the sun disappeared behind the western horizon; but as though to prove the truth of the fanciful ideas in heathen mythology, its indiscreet rays reappeared on the summit of every wave, as if the god of fire had just sunk upon the bosom of Amphitrite, who in vain endeavored to hide her lover beneath her azure mantle.”
― Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo

“Yes, monsieur, I believe so; for until now, no man has found himself in a position similar to mine. The dominions of kings are limited either by mountains or rivers, or a change of manners, or an alteration of language. My kingdom is bounded only by the world, for I am not an Italian, or a Frenchman, or a Hindu, or an American, or a Spaniard—I am a cosmopolite. No country can say it saw my birth. God alone knows what country will see me die. I adopt all customs, speak all languages. You believe me to be a Frenchman, for I speak French with the same facility and purity as yourself. Well, Ali, my Nubian, believes me to be an Arab; Bertuccio, my steward, takes me for a Roman; Haydée, my slave, thinks me a Greek. You may, therefore, comprehend, that being of no country, asking no protection from any government, acknowledging no man as my brother, not one of the scruples that arrest the powerful, or the obstacles which paralyze the weak, paralyzes or arrests me. I have only two adversaries—I will not say two conquerors, for with perseverance I subdue even them,—they are time and distance. There is a third, and the most terrible—that is my condition as a mortal being. This alone can stop me in my onward career, before I have attained the goal at which I aim, for all the rest I have reduced to mathematical terms. What men call the chances of fate—namely, ruin, change, circumstances—I have fully anticipated, and if any of these should overtake me, yet it will not overwhelm me. Unless I die, I shall always be what I am, and therefore it is that I utter the things you have never heard, even from the mouths of kings—for kings have need, and other persons have fear of you. For who is there who does not say to himself, in a society as incongruously organized as ours, 'Perhaps some day I shall have to do with the king's attorney'?”
― Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo

“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. Are you a man for the substantials, and is gold your god? taste this, and the mines of Peru, Guzerat, and Golconda are opened to you. Are you a man of imagination—a poet? taste this, and the boundaries of possibility disappear; the fields of infinite space open to you, you advance free in heart, free in mind, into the boundless realms of unfettered reverie. Are you ambitious, and do you seek after the greatnesses of the earth? taste this, and in an hour you will be a king, not a king of a petty kingdom hidden in some corner of Europe like France, Spain, or England, but king of the world, king of the universe, king of creation; without bowing at the feet of Satan, you will be king and master of all the kingdoms of the earth. Is it not tempting what I offer you, and is it not an easy thing, since it is only to do thus? look!”
― Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo