Alexandre Dumas Quotes

Alexandre Dumas Quotes

Philosophy cannot be taught; it is the application of the sciences to truth.

Woman is sacred; the woman one loves is holy.

Those born to wealth, and who have the means of gratifying every wish, know not what is the real happiness of life, just as those who have been tossed on the stormy waters of the ocean on a few frail planks can alone realize the blessings of fair weather.

I have always had more dread of a pen, a bottle of ink, and a sheet of paper than of a sword or pistol.

We must never expect discretion in first love: it is accompanied by such excessive joy that unless the joy is allowed to overflow, it will choke you.

True love always makes a man better, no matter what woman inspires it.

Love is the most selfish of all the passions.

Moral wounds have this peculiarity - they may be hidden, but they never close; always painful, always ready to bleed when touched, they remain fresh and open in the heart.

When you compare the sorrows of real life to the pleasures of the imaginary one, you will never want to live again, only to dream forever.

I do not cling to life sufficiently to fear death.

Until the day when God shall deign to reveal the future to man, all human wisdom is summed up in these two words,-Wait and hope.

To learn is not to know; there are the learners and the learned. Memory makes the one, philosophy the others.

Il y a les sachants et les savants: c'est la mémoire qui fait les uns, c'est la philosophie qui fait les autres. La philosophie ne s'apprend pas; la philosophie est la réunion des sciences acquises au génie qui les applique.

I don’t think man was meant to attain happiness so easily. Happiness is like those palaces in fairy tales whose gates are guarded by dragons: we must fight in order to conquer it.

Darling, has not the count just told us that all human wisdom is summed up in two words? Wait and hope.

I am not proud, but I am happy; and happiness blinds, I think, more than pride.

Happiness is like those palaces in fairytales whose gates are guarded by dragons: We must fight in order to conquer it.

He who has felt the deepest grief is best able to experience supreme happiness.

Happy! who can answer for that? Happiness or unhappiness is the secret known but to oneself…

The truth is,’ replied Dantes, ‘that I am too happy for noisy mirth; ...joy takes a strange effect at times, it seems to oppress us almost the same as sorrow.

I cannot think that man is meant to find happiness so easily! Happiness is like one of those palaces on an enchanted island, its gates guarded by dragons. One must fight to gain it; and, in truth, I do not know what I have done to deserve the good fortune of becoming Mercédès, husband.

That is a dream also; only he has remained asleep, while you have awakened; and who knows which of you is the most fortunate?

For the happy man prayer is only a jumble of words, until the day when sorrow comes to explain to him the sublime language by means of which he speaks to God.

Everyone knows that God protects drunkards and lovers.

Unfortunates, who ought to begin with God, do not have any hope in him till they have exhausted all other means of deliverance.

God, who might have directed the assassin's dagger so as to end your career in a moment, has given you this quarter of an hour for repentance. Reflect, then, wretched man, and repent. (The Count of Monte Cristo)

How is it that little children are so intelligent and men so stupid? It must be education that does it

In all times, and all countries especially in those countries which are divided within by religious faith, there are always fanatics who will be well contented to be regarded as martyrs.

The merit of all things lies in their difficulty.

A person who doubts himself is like a man who would enlist in the ranks of his enemies and bear arms against himself. He makes his failures certain by himself being the first person to be convinced of it.

Nothing succeeds like success.

Nothing makes time pass or shortens the way like a thought that absorbs in itself all the faculties of the one who is thinking. External existence is then like a sleep of which this thought is the dream. Under its influence, time has no more measure, space has no more distance.

Let me struggle like a woman- my strength lies in my weakness. - Milady

The King! I thought him enough of a philosopher to realize that there is no such thing as murder in politics. You know as well as I do, my dear boy, that 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.

The king! I thought he was philosopher enough to allow that there was no murder in politics. In politics, my dear fellow, you know, as well as I do, there are no men, but ideas - no feelings, but interests; in politics we do not kill a man, we only remove an obstacle, that is all.

But these first needs of the heart are so imperious, these outpourings of amorous melancholy in young people are at once so sweet and so bitter, that they have often all the real marks of the passion.

It is quite rare for God to provide a great man at the necessary moment to carry out some great deep, which is why when this unusual combination of circumstance does occur, history at once records the name of the chosen one and recommends him to the admiration of posterity.

We are entitled to violate history, provided that it results in handsome offspring.

He who has a partner has a master.

The voice of human nature is nothing but one prolonged cry.

To save a man and thereby to spare a father's agony and a mother's feelings is not to do a noble deed, it is but an act of humanity.

Oh, mankind, race of crocodiles! How well I recognize you down there, and how worthy you are of yourselves!

There is no friendship that cares about an overheard secret.

Friendship throws out deep roots in honest hearts, D'Artagnan. Believe me, it is only the evil-minded who deny friendship; they cannot understand it.

Besides we are men, and after all it is our business to risk our lives.

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.

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