The Count of Monte Cristo

I am not proud, but I am happy; and happiness blinds, I think, more than pride.

All human wisdom is contained in these two words - Wait and Hope

Woman is sacred; the woman one loves is holy.

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.

It's necessary to have wished for death in order to know how good it is to live.

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

How did I escape? With difficulty. How did I plan this moment? With pleasure.

All human wisdom is contained in these two words--"Wait and Hope.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

...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...

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

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.

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

Hatred is blind; rage carries you away; and he who pours out vengeance runs the risk of tasting a bitter draught.

...remember that what has once been done may be done again.

So much the worse for those who fear wine, for it is because they have some bad thoughts which they are afraid the liquor will extract from their hearts.

What would you not have accomplished if you had been free?" "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. Compression is needed to explode gunpowder. Captivity has brought my mental faculties to a focus; and you are well aware that from the collision of clouds electricity is produced — from electricity, lightning, from lightning, illumination.

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.