Besides, one requires the excitement of being hateful in the eyes of the accused, in order to lash one’s self into a state of sufficient vehemence and power. I would not choose to see the man against whom I pleaded smile, as though in mockery of my words. No; my pride is to see the accused pale, agitated, and as though beaten out of all composure by the fire of my eloquence.
On my word, I think you are right, Lucien,” said Albert absently.
He who chases the eagle takes no heed of the sparrow.
Be philosophers, like me, gentlemen: come around the table and let us drink.
Like all primitive natures, she adored everything that appealed to her eyes and her ears.
The poison employed by Sainte-Croix has been tried in all the ways, and can defy every experiment. This poison floats in water, it is the superior, and the water obeys it; it escapes in the trial by fire, leaving behind only innocent deposits; in animals it is so skilfully concealed that no one could detect it; all parts of the animal remain healthy and active; even while it is spreading the cause of death, this artificial poison leaves behind the marks and appearance of life.
Balzampleu!” said the Swiss, who, despite the fine collection of oaths boasted by the German language, had taken to swearing in French.
Non temo nulla, Bentivoglio!
In any case, even the most corrupt of us finds it hard to believe in evil unless it is based on some interest. We reject the idea of harm done for no cause and without gain as anomalous.
The softness of your voice covers the hardness of your words. You speak of sacrilege, but the sacrilege is in the separation of hearts that God has formed for each other!
Danglars was one of those men born with a pen behind the ear, and an ink-stand in place of a heart. Everything with him was multiplication or subtraction, and he estimated the life of a man as less precious than a figure, when that figure could increase, and the life would diminish, the total of the amount.
So it is true that every one of our actions leaves some trace on our past, either dark or bright. So it is true that every step we take is more like a reptile’s progress across the sand, leaving a track behind it. And often, alas, the track is the mark of our tears!
When you want to obtain something touching a man’s self-respect, you must spare his pride even the appearance of suffering.
For hearts which have long suffered, happiness is like dew on soil parched by the sun: both heart and earth absorb this beneficial rain as it falls on them, and nothing appears on the surface.
Death, according to the care we take to be on good or bad terms with it, is either a friend which will rock us as gently as a nursing mother or an enemy which will savagely tear apart body and soul.
The Countess G – – insists upon it that he is a vampire.
Let the rich man rediscover the poor one; the free man the pisoner; and the resurrected man the corpse.
Well, monsieur, I am suffering at this moment something strange, and that is the satisfaction of despair. There is in certain souls – and I have just discovered that mine is of the number – a real satisfaction in the assurance that all is lost, and the time is come to yield.
Il faut avoir voulu mourir, pour savoir combien il est bon de vivre.
One must take the world as one finds it.