1. “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.”
2. “Great is the truth, fire can not burn, nor water can drown it!”
3. “Why, when a man has friends, they are not only to offer him a glass of wine, but, moreover, to prevent his swallowing three or four pints of water unnecessarily!”
4. “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. You must look into that storm and shout as you did in Rome. Do your worst, for I will do mine! Then the fates will know you as we know you.”
5. “This idea was one of vengeance to me, and I tasted it slowly in the night of my dungeon and the despair of my captivity.”
6. “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.”
7. “How did I escape? With difficulty. How did I plan this moment? With pleasure.”
8. “One always hurries towards happiness, Monsieur Danglars, because when one has suffered much, one is at pains to believe in it.”
9. “That man made a deep impression on me; I shall never forget his countenance!” The Englishman smiled imperceptibly.”
10. “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.”
11. “You are perfectly right in objecting to them [modern art], for this one great fault – that they have not yet had time to become old.”
12. “In reality, when you have once devoted your life to your enterprises, you are no longer the equal of other men, or, rather, other men are no longer your equals, and whosoever has taken this resolution, feels his strength and resources doubled.”
13. “Yes, and remember that two-legged tigers and crocodiles are more dangerous than the others.”
14. “We are never quits with those who oblige us,” was Dantes’ reply; “for when we do not owe them money, we owe them gratitude.”
15. “The difference between treason and patriotism is only a matter of dates.”
16. “Do you think that, if I did, I would lead you to the answer inch by inch, like a dramatist or a novelist?”
17. “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.”
18. “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.”
19. “What, no wine?” said Dantes, turning pale, and looking alternately at the hollow cheeks of the old man and the empty cupboards. “What, no wine? Have you wanted money, father?”
20. “I had nearly five thousand volumes in my library at Rome; but after reading them over many times, I found out that with one hundred and fifty well-chosen books a man possesses, if not a complete summary of all human knowledge, at least all that a man need really know.”
21. “What makes you a man is what you do when that storm comes. You must look into that storm and shout as you did in Rome. Do your worst, for I will do mine! Then the fates will know you as we know you.”
22. “I have always had more dread of a pen, a bottle of ink, and a sheet of paper than of a sword or pistol.”
23. “Well, so much the better for him,’ said the inspector. ‘When he is altogether mad, he will suffer less.’ As you can see, this inspector was a man of the utmost humanity and altogether worthy of the philanthropic office with which he had been entrusted.”
24. “I have seen the man I loved preparing to become the murderer of my son!” She said these words with such overwhelming grief, in such a desperate voice, that when he heard it a sob rose in the count’s throat. The lion was tamed, the avenging angel overcome.
25. “That is a dream also; only he has remained asleep while you have awakened, and who knows which of you is the most fortunate?”
26. “It is the way of weakened minds to see everything through a black cloud. The soul forms its own horizons; your soul is darkened, and consequently the sky of the future appears stormy and unpromising.”
27. “Andrea was not very handsome, the hideous scoundrel”
28. “For there are two distinct sorts of ideas, those that proceed from the head and those that emanate from the heart.”
29. “Yet man will never be perfect until he learns to create and destroy; he does know how to destroy, and that is half the battle.”
30. “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.”
31. “We’ll go where the air is pure, where all sounds are soothing, where, no matter how proud one may be, one feels humble and finds oneself small- in short, we’ll go to the sea. I love the sea as one loves a mistress and I long for her when I haven’t seen her for some time”
32. “God is always the last resource.”
33. “in the shipwreck of life — for life is an eternal shipwreck of our hopes”
34. “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.”
35. “If crowns were only for the most beautiful and intelligent heads, Mercedès would be a queen now.”
36. “Return to the world still more brilliant because of your former sorrows.”
37. “If you wish to discover the guilty person, first find out to whom the crime might be useful.,”
38. “If it is one’s lot to be cast among fools, one must learn foolishness.”
39. “And yet the two young people had never declared their affection; they had grown together like two trees whose roots are mingled, whose branches intertwine and whose intermingled perfume rises to the heavens.”
40. “The distance was short, and at the end of ten minutes his carriage, or rather the count’s, stopped before the Hotel de Londres.”
41. “I know the world is a drawing-room, from which we must retire politely and honestly; that is, with a bow, and our debts of honor paid.”
42. “Good fortune is like the palaces of the enchanted isles, the gates of which were guarded by dragons. Happiness could only be obtained by overcoming these dragons,”
43. “There are some situations which men understand by instinct, by which reason is powerless to explain; in such cases the greatest poet is he who gives utterance to the most natural and vehement outburst of sorrow. Those who hear the bitter cry are as much impressed as if they listened to an entire poem, and when th sufferer is sincere they are right in regarding his outburst as sublime.”
44. “You who are in power have only the means that money produces—we who are in expectation, have those which devotion prompts”
45. “It’s easy to be friends with when shares the same opinions.”
46. “There is something so awe-inspiring in great afflictions that even in the worst times the first emotion of a crowd has generally been to sympathise with the sufferer in a great catastrophe.”
47. “And now,” said the stranger, “farewell, goodness, humanity, gratitude … Farewell all those feelings that nourish and illuminate the heart! I have taken the place of Providence to reward the good; now let the avenging God make way for me to punish the wrongdoer!”
48. “Remember that what has once been done may be done again.”
49. “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.”
50. “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.’ Your friend,”
51. “there is no nation but the French that can smile even in the face of grim Death himself.”
52. “Live, for a day will come when you will be happy and bless life.”
53. “In every country where independence has taken the place of liberty, the first desire of a manly heart is to possess a weapon which at once renders him capable of defence or attack, and, by rendering its owner fearsome, makes him feared.”
54. “Tree forsakes not the flower—the flower falls from the tree.”
55. “Towards the beginning of the year 1838, two young men belonging to the first society of Paris, the Vicomte Albert de Morcerf and the Baron Franz d’Epinay, were at Florence.”
56. “What tender threads do life and death hang”
57. “Youth is a blossom whose fruit is love; happy is he who plucks it after watching it slowly ripen.”
58. “What the count said was true—the most curious spectacle in life is that of death.”
59. “What I’ve loved most after you, is myself: that is, my dignity and that strength which made me superior to other men. That Strength was my life. You’ve broken it with a word, so I must die.”
60. “Incertitude is still hope.”
61. “No man truly in love has ever let the hands of a clock go peacefully on their way.”
62. “Order is the key to all problems.”
63. “Tell the angel who will watch over your life to pray now and then for a man who, like Satan, believed himself for an instant to be equal to God, but who realized in all humility that supreme power and wisdom are in the hands of God alone.”
64. “Oh, thank me again!” said the count; “tell me till you are weary, that I have restored you to happiness; you do not know how much I require this assurance.”
65. “Live, then, and be happy, beloved children of my heart, and never forget, that until the day when God designs to reveal the future to man, all human wisdom is contained in these two words, – Wait and hope. – Edmond Dantès”
66. “But excessive grief is like a storm at sea, where the frail bark is tossed from the depths to the top of the wave.”
67. “for men who are truly generous are always ready to compassionate when the misfortune of their enemy surpasses the limits of their hatred.”
68. “He who has a partner has a master.”
69. “Happy! who can answer for that? Happiness or unhappiness is the secret known but to oneself…”
70. “Fool that I am,” said he,”that I did not tear out my heart the day I resolved to revenge myself”.”
71. “…joy takes a strange effect at times, it seems to oppress us almost the same as sorrow.”
72. “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.”
73. “Ah, said the jailer, do not always brood over what is impossible, or you will be mad in a fortnight.”
74. “Pain, thou art not an evil.”
75. “God is merciful to all, as he has been to you; he is first a father, then a judge.”
76. “I have no fear of ghosts, and I have never heard it said that so much harm had been done by the dead during 6,000 years as it brought by the living in a single day.”
77. “It is the infirmity of our nature always to believe ourselves much more unhappy than those who groan by our sides!”
78. “Mankind will not be perfect until it can create and destroy like God. It can already destroy: that’s half the battle.”
79. “He who has felt the deepest grief is best able to experience supreme happiness.”
80. “Oh, believe me, that when three great passions, such as sorrow, love, and gratitude fill the heart, ennui can find no place.” “You”
81. “There is neither happiness nor unhappiness in this world; there is only the comparison of one state with another.”
82. “Ah, lips that say one thing, while the heart thinks another,”
83. “Now that I expect nothing, now that I no longer entertain the slightest hopes, the end of this adventure becomes simply a matter of curiosity.”
84. “Man is undoubtedly a most ungrateful and selfish creature …”
85. “Besides, what is required of a young man in Paris? To speak its language tolerably, to make a good appearance, to be a good gamester, and to pay in cash.”
86. “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.”
87. “Those born to wealth, and who have the means of gratifying every wish,” said Emmanuel, “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.”
88. “I was delighted to see you again, and forgot for the moment that all happiness is fleeting.”
89. “No matter; God wants Man, whom he has created and in whose heart he has so profoundly entrenched a love for life, to do all he can to preserve an existence that is sometimes so painful, but always so dear to him.”
90. “I wish to be Providence myself, for I feel that the most beautiful, noblest, most sublime thing in the world, is to recompense and punish.”
91. “Oh, God,” said Monte Cristo, “your vengeance may sometimes be slow in coming, but I think that then it is all the more complete.”
92. “Happiness even makes the wicked good.”
93. “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.”
94. “What is truly desirable? A possession that we cannot have. So, my life is devoted to seeing things that I cannot understand and obtaining things that are impossible to have. I succeed by two means: money and will. I am as persevering in the pursuit of my whims as, for example, you are, Monsieur Danglars, in building a railway; or you, Monsieur de Villefort, in condemning a man to death; or you, Monsieur Debray, pacifying a kingdom; you, Monsieur de Château-Renaud, in finding favour with a woman; or you, Monsieur Morrel, in breaking a horse that no one else can ride.”
95. “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. we have felt what it is to die, Morrel, that we may appreciate the enjoyments of living.”
96. “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.”
97. “Unfortunately in this world of ours, each person views things through a certain medium, which prevents his seeing them in the same light as others…”
98. “you cannot reproach me with the slightest coquetry. I have always said to you, ‘I love you as a brother; but do not ask from me more than sisterly affection, for my heart is another’s.’ Is not this true, Fernand?”
99. “Philosophy cannot be taught; it is the application of the sciences to truth.”
100. “Haste is a poor counselor.”
101. “I have in my heart three feelings with which one can never be bored: sadness, love and gratitude.”
102. “To learn is not to know; there are the learners and the learned. Memory makes the one, philosophy the others.”
103. “All human wisdom is contained in these two words – Wait and Hope.”
104. “But Valentine, why despair, why always paint the future in such sombre hues?” Maximilien asked. ”
105. “Weakened minds see everything through a black veil; the soul forms its own horizons; your soul is darkened, and consequently the sky of your future appears stormy and unpromising.”
106. “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.”
107. “it is a cruel thing to be forced to say, but, already used to misfortune, I must habituate myself to shame.”
108. “Life is a storm. One minute you will bathe under the sun, and the next, you will be shattered upon the rocks.”
109. “It is not the tree that forsakes the flower, but the flower that forsakes the tree.”
110. “The heart breaks when it has swelled too much in the warm breath of hope, then finds itself enclosed in cold reality.”
111. “the entertainments of the fashionable world are collections of flowers which attract inconstant butterflies, famished bees, and buzzing drones.”
112. “For all evils there are two remedies – time and silence.”
113. “So he went down, smiling sceptically and mutter the final word in human wisdom: ‘Perhaps!”
114. “I know what happiness and what despair are, and I never make a jest of such feelings. Take it, then, but in exchange — ”
115. “Unfortunates, who ought to begin with God, do not have any hope in him till they have exhausted all other means of deliverance.”
116. “It’s necessary to have wished for death in order to know how good it is to live.”
117. “Your life story is a novel, and people, though they love novels wound between two yellow paper covers, are oddly suspicious of those which come to them in living vellum.”
118. “I am hungry, feed me; I am bored, amuse me.”
119. “…remember that what has once been done may be done again.”
120. “There is a sort of consolation at the contemplation of the yawning abyss, at the bottom of which lie darkness and obscurity. Edmond”
121. “I should be much displeased at this, not because of any loss that it might occasion, but because I should no longer have the assurance that, whenever I wish, I can separate myself from the rest of the world.”
122. “Beneath passion and beyond pleasure, there is always a trace of remorse.”
123. “I am not proud, but I am happy; and happiness blinds, I think, more than pride.”
124. “to a happy man, a prayer is a monotonous composition, void of meaning, until the day when suffering deciphers the sublime language through which the poor victim addresses God.”
125. “I, who have also been betrayed, assassinated and cast into a tomb, I have emerged from that tomb by the grace of God and I owe it to God to take my revenge. He has sent me for that purpose. Here I am.”
126. “Possibly nothing at all; the overflow of my brain would probably, in a state of freedom, have evaporated in a thousand follies; misfortune is needed to bring to light the treasures of the human intellect.”
127. “Happiness is like one of those palaces on an enchanted island, its gates guarded by dragons. One must fight to gain it.”
128. “When we show a friend a city one has already visited, we feel the same pride as when we point out a woman whose lover we have been.”
129. “What a fool I was, not to tear my heart out on the day when I resolved to avenge myself!”
130. “I found that with one hundred and fifty well- chosen books, a man possesses a complete summary of all human knowledge, or at least all that a man need really know.”
131. “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.”
132. “All men are scoundrels and I am happy to be able to do more than hate them: now I despise them.”
133. “He who has felt the deepest grief is best able to experience supreme happiness. We must have felt what it is to die, Morrel, that we may appreciate the enjoyments of life. Live, then, and be happy, beloved children of my heart, and never forget, that until the day when God will deign to reveal the future to man, all human wisdom is contained in these two words, – ‘Wait and hope.’ – Your friend, Edmond Dantes, Count of Monte Cristo. The eyes of both were fixed on the spot indicated by the sailor, and on the blue-line separating the sky from the Mediterranean Sea, they perceived a large white sail.”
134. “Woman is sacred; the woman one loves is holy.”
135. “Now I’d like someone to tell me there is no drama in real life!.”
136. “So all my opinions—I would not say political, but private opinions—are confined to three feelings: I love my father, I respect Monsieur Morrel and I adore Mercédès.”
137. “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.”
138. “all human wisdom is summed up in two words? — `Wait and hope.”
139. “How well I know you by your deeds and how invariably you succeed in living down to what one expects of you!”
140. “I can assure you of one thing, — the more men you see die, the easier it becomes to die yourself; and in my opinion, death may be a torture, but it is not an expiation.”
141. “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.”
142. “On what slender threads do life and fortune hang… !.”
143. “God is always the last resource.”