So rapid is the flight of dreams upon the wings of imagination.

l’action et l’amour

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

Woman is sacred; the woman one loves is holy.

There is no friendship that cares about an overheard secret.

Sometimes salvation is found in agony.

He was a fine, tall, slim young fellow, with black eyes, and hair as dark as the raven’s wing; and his whole appearance bespoke that calmness and resolution peculiar to men accustomed from their cradle...

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

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.

In all well-organised brains, the predominating idea—and there always is one—is sure to be the last thought before sleeping, and the first upon waking in the morning. Andrea had scarcely opened his eyes when his...

Through the ingenuousness of her age beamed an ardent mind, a mind not of the women but of the poet; she did not please, she intoxicated.

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

There are some catastrophes that a poor writer’s pen cannot describe and which he is obliged to leave to the imagination of his readers with a bald statement of the facts.

Death is the only serious preoccupation in life.

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

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.

…M. Danglars, who had listened to all this preamble with imperturbable coolness, but without understanding a word, engaged as he was, like every man burdened with thoughts of the past, in seeking the thread of...

MY GOD!’ read Monte Cristo, ‘LET ME KEEP MY MEMORY!

Perhaps what I am about to say will appear strange to you gentlemen, socialists, progressives, humanitarians as you are, but I never worry about my neighbor, I never try to protect society which does not...

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

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...

I do as I please, Monsieur Beauchamp, and believe me, what I do is always well done.

Look, look,’ cried the count, seizing the young man’s hands – “look, for on my soul it is curious. Here is a man who had resigned himself to his fate, who was going to the...

Un homme de cinquante ans ne tient pas longtemps rancune à une femme de vingt-trois.

At Rome thing can or cannot be done when you are told anything cannot be done, there is an end of it.””It is much more convenient at Paris; when anything cannot be done you pay...

Love is the most selfish of all the passions.

You see that God deems it right to take from me any claim to merit for what you call my devotion to you. I have promised to remain forever with you, and now I could...

You are young,” replied Athos, “and your bitter memories have time to change into sweet ones.

Very well, young man, very well,” Treville went on, “I know those airs. I came to Paris with four ecus in my pocket, and I’d have fought with anybody who told me I was in...

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...

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

these groups followed some solitary passer-by, hurrying his steps; one after another the doors were closed, one after

I do what I please, M. Beauchamp, and it is always well done.

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.

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...

However anxious one is to reach one’s goal, one can excuse delays on the route when these are caused by ovations.

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.

Indeed, four men like them, four men devoted to each other from their money to their lives, four men always supporting each other, never retreating, performing singly or together the resolutions they had made in...

God may seem sometimes to forget for a while, whilst his justice reposes, but there always comes a moment when he remembers.

Fool that I am,” said he,”that I did not tear out my heart the day I resolved to revenge myself”.

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.

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.

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…

True, I have raped history, but it has produced some beautiful offspring.

Everyone knows that God protects drunkards and lovers.

Mastery of language affords one remarkable opportunities.

Sleeping on a plank has one advantage – it encourages early rising.

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...

God is merciful to all, as he has been to you; he is first a father, then a judge.

How well I know you by your deeds and how invariably you succeed in living down to what one expects of you!