Alexandre Dumas Quotes

There is neither happiness nor misery in the world; there is only the comparison of one state with another, nothing more. He who has felt the deepest grief is best able to experience supreme happiness.

Pure love and suspicion cannot dwell together: at the door where the latter enters, the former makes its exit.

Life is a storm, my young friend. You will bask in the sunlight one moment, be shattered on the rocks the next. What makes you a man is what you do when that storm comes.

For all evils there are two remedies - time and silence.

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

There are two ways of seeing: with the body and with the soul. The body's sight can sometimes forget, but the soul remembers forever.

All for one and one for all, united we stand divided we fall.

Only a man who has felt ultimate despair is capable of feeling ultimate bliss.

One's work may be finished someday, but one's education never.

Woman is sacred; the woman one loves is holy.

Love is the most selfish of all the passions.

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

A person who doubts himself is like a man who would enlist in the ranks of his enemies and bear arms against himself.

There is neither happiness nor unhappiness in this world; there is only the comparison of one state with another. Only a man who has felt ultimate despair is capable of feeling ultimate bliss. It is necessary to have wished for death in order to know how good it is to live.....the sum of all human wisdom will be contained in these two words: Wait and Hope.

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.

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

The friends we have lost do not repose under the ground...they are buried deep in our hearts. It has been thus ordained that they may always accompany us.

True love always makes a man better, no matter who the woman is that inspires it.

...know you not that you are my sun by day, and my star by night? By my faith! I was in deepest darkness till you appeared and illuminated all.

The difference between treason and patriotism is only a matter of dates.

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.

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

Be happy, noble heart, be blessed for all the good thou hast done and wilt do hereafter, and let my gratitude remain in obscurity like your good deeds.

Great is truth. Fire cannot burn it nor water drown it.

Life is a storm. One minute you will bathe under the sun and the next you will be shattered upon the rocks. That's when you shout, "Do your worst, for I will do mine!" and you will be remembered forever.

Often we pass beside happiness without seeing it, without looking at it, or even if we have seen and looked at it, without recognizing it.

If you wish to discover the guilty person, first find out to whom the crime might be useful.

I came to Paris with four écus in my pocket, and I’d have fought with anybody who told me I was in no condition to buy the Louvre.

Ah, lips that say one thing, while the heart thinks another.

Be kind. Aim for my heart.

Women are never so strong as after their defeat.

I hate this life of the fashionable world, always ordered, measured, ruled, like our music-paper. What I have always wished for, desired, and coveted, is the life of an artist, free and independent, relying only on my own resources, and accountable only to myself.

Order is the key to all problems.

The air in Provence is impregnated with the aroma of garlic, which makes it very healthful to breathe.

A weakened mind always sees everything through a black veil. The soul makes its own horizons; your soul is dark, which is why you see such a cloudy sky.

I'm sure you're very nice, but you'd be even nicer if you went away.

As a general rule...people ask for advice only in order not to follow it; or if they do follow it, in order to have someone to blame for giving it.

The merit of all things lies in their difficulty.

God is full of mercy for everyone, as He has been towards you. He is a father before He is a judge.

The hungry men were seen, followed by their valets, roaming the quais and guards' quarters; gleaning from their outside friends all the dinners they could find; for, according to Aramis, in prosperity one should sow meals right and left, in order to harvest some in adversity.

Here is your final lesson - do not commit the crime for which you now serve the sentence. God said, "Vengeance is mine." [...] He believes in you.

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.

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

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

Dantes passed through all the stages of torture natural to prisoners in suspense. He was sustained at first by that pride of conscious innocence which is the sequence to hope; then he began to doubt his own innocence, which justified in some measure the governor's belief in his mental alienation; and then, relaxing his sentiment of pride, he addressed his supplications, not to God, but to man. God is always the last resource. Unfortunates, who ought to begin with God, do not have any hope in him till they have exhausted all other means of deliverance.

All for one, one for all, that is our device.

The wretched and miserable should turn to their Saviour first, yet they do not hope in Him until all other hope is exhausted.

D’Artagnan: Why is Athos sitting by himself? Aramis: He takes his drinking very seriously. Not to worry, he’ll be his usual charming self by morning.

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.

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