Quotes from Alexandre Dumas

I have lost all that bound me to life; now death smiles on me as a nurse smiles on the child she is about to rock to sleep; now welcome death!" No sooner had this idea taken possession of the unhappy young man than he became more calm and resigned;

I could recite you the whole of Thucydides, Xenophon, Plutarch, Titus Livius, Tacitus, Strada, Jornandes, Dante, Montaigne, Shakespeare, Spinoza, Machiavelli, and Bossuet. I name only the most important." "You

Robin Buss is a writer and translator who contributes regularly to The Times Educational Supplement, The Times Literary Supplement and other papers.

I think it's very good music composed by a human composer and sung by two birds with two feet and no feathers!

this is a very fair gathering--circumspect, calm, accustomed to disturbance, acquainted with blows! Peste! I have been lucky.

Then the steps retreated, and the voices died away in the distance; the noise of the door, with its creaking hinges and bolts ceased, and a silence more sombre than that of solitude ensued, — the silence of death, which was all-pervasive, and struck its icy chill to the very soul of Dantes.

Admire yourself and others will admire you', a hundred times more useful in our days than the Greek one: 'Know thyself', which has now been replaced by the less demanding and more profitable art of knowing others.

So is it true, what our enemies say about us: nothing learned, nothing forgotten? (Talleyrand)

Adieu; I go far from men who thus so bitterly injure each other.

Planchet, two hours before, had asked his master for some dinner, and he had answered him with the proverb, "He who sleeps, dines." And Planchet dined by sleeping.

He told himself that it was the hatred of men, not the vengeance of God, which had plunged him into the abyss where he now found himself.

We are always in a hurry to be happy, M. Danglars; for when we have suffered a long time, we have great difficulty in believing in good fortune.

Well, Monsieur Laporte placed her near her Majesty in order that our poor queen might at least have someone in whom she could place confidence, abandoned as she is by the king, watched as she is by the cardinal, betrayed as she is by everybody. Ah, ah!

Drunk, if you like; so much the worse for those who fear wine, for it is because they have bad thoughts which they are afraid the liquor will extract from their hearts;

There is only one serious matter to be considered in life, and that is death.

We are always in a hurry to be happy, M. Danglars; for when we have suffered a long time, we have great difficulty in believing in good fortune. But

A crestfallen capitalist is like a comet: he always warns of some great misfortune to come.

as Claudius said to Hamlet, `it is a law of nature; their fathers died before them, and they mourned their loss; they will die before their children, who will, in their turn, grieve for them.

God won't give the devil the pleasure of receiving a priest.

Alas, madame! exclaimed Athos, to-day love is like war--the breastplate is becoming useless.

La joie pour les cÅ"urs qui ont longtemps souffert est pareille à la rosée pour la terre desséchée par le soleil: cÅ"ur et terre absorbent cette pluie bienfaisante qui tombe sur eux, et rien n'en apparaît au dehors.

And now, said the unknown, farewell kindness, humanity, and gratitude! Farewell to all the feelings that expand the heart! I have been heaven's substitute to recompense the good — now the god of vengeance yields to me his power to punish the wicked! At these words he gave a signal, and, as if only awaiting this signal, the yacht instantly put out to sea.

Vivid, pues, y sed dichosos, hijos queridos de mi corazón, y no olvidéis nunca que hasta el día en que Dios se digne descifrar el porvenir al hombre, toda la sabiduría humana estará resumida en dos palabras: ¡Confiar y esperar! Vuestro amigo, Edmundo Dantes, Conde de Montecristo.

Ho sempre avuto più paura di una penna, di una bottiglietta d'inchiostro e di un foglio di carta che non di una spada o di una pistola.