Rogues are preferable to imbeciles because sometimes they take a rest.
If God were suddenly condemned to live the life which He has inflicted upon men, He would kill Himself.
True, I have raped history, but it has produced some beautiful offspring.
And now gentlemen, all for one, one for all – that is our motto, is it not?
I have no will, unless it be the will never to decide. I have been so overwhelmed by the many storms that have broken over my head, that I am become passive in the hands of the Almighty, like a sparrow in the talons of an eagle. I live, because it is not ordained for me to die.
All falsehood is a mask; and however well made the mask may be, with a little attention we may always succeed in distinguishing it from the true face.
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!
Ah,” said the jailer, “do not always brood over what is impossible, or you will be mad in a fortnight.
We are never quits with those who oblige us,” was Dantes’ reply; “for when we do not owe them money, we owe them gratitude.
People in general,” he said, “only ask advice not to follow it; or if they do follow it, it is for the sake of having someone to blame for having given it.
Todo mal tienes dos remedios; el tiempo y el silencio.
There is neither happiness nor misery in the world; there is only the comparison of one state with another.
Live, for a day will come when you will be happy and bless life.
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.
Without reflecting that this is the only moment in which you can study character,” said the count; “on the steps of the scaffold death tears off the mask that has been worn through life, and the real visage is disclosed.
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.
I will follow him to hell, and that is saying not a little, as I believe him entirely capable of the descent.
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.
Mankind will not be perfect until it can create and destroy like God. It can already destroy: that’s half the battle.
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 must have felt what it is to die, Morrel, that we may appreciate the enjoyments of living.