Quotes from Twenty Years After

“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.”
― Alexandre Dumas, quote from Twenty Years After

“Now an enemy is never so near and consequently so threatening, as when he has completely disappeared.”
― Alexandre Dumas, quote from Twenty Years After

“Women and doors - did I not tell you, friend Porthos, that they are always to be managed by gentleness? - D'Artagnan”
― Alexandre Dumas, quote from Twenty Years After

“His fair landlady was in despair. She would most willingly have made M. d'Artagnan her husband--such a handsome man, and such a fierce mustache!”
― Alexandre Dumas, quote from Twenty Years After

“When you are in doubt as to which you should serve forsake the material appearance for the invisible principle for this is everything.”
― Alexandre Dumas, quote from Twenty Years After

“I will follow him to hell, and that is saying not a little, as I believe him entirely capable of the descent.”
― Alexandre Dumas, quote from Twenty Years After

“Follow me. He who lives will see. - D'Artagnan”
― Alexandre Dumas, quote from Twenty Years After

“Great people only thank you for doing the impossible; what’s possible, they say they can effect themselves.”
― Alexandre Dumas, quote from Twenty Years After

“The plan is not wanting in grandeur; I see but one impediment.”

“What is it?”

“Impossibility.”
― Alexandre Dumas, quote from Twenty Years After

“Political judgments are generally vain formalities, for the same passions which give rise to the accusation ordain the condemnation. Such is the atrocious logic of revolutions.”
― Alexandre Dumas, quote from Twenty Years After

“My lord,” said D’Artagnan, “Monsieur de Vallon [Porthos] is like me, he prefers service extraordinary—that is to say, enterprises that are considered mad and impossible.”
― Alexandre Dumas, quote from Twenty Years After

“What is offered from a generous heart should be accepted generously.”
― Alexandre Dumas, quote from Twenty Years After

“[I]f you happen to have any money, lock it up quickly; if you happen to have any jewels, hide them directly; if you happen to have any debtors, make them pay you, or any creditors, don’t pay them.”
― Alexandre Dumas, quote from Twenty Years After

“Flying through an army, sire,” said Athos, “in all countries in the world is called charging.”
― Alexandre Dumas, quote from Twenty Years After

“As for Porthos, I believe him to be eternal, like God, although less patient.”
― Alexandre Dumas, quote from Twenty Years After

“I never swear, Monseigneur. I say Yes or No, and as I am a gentleman, I keep my word.”
― Alexandre Dumas, quote from Twenty Years After

“But these first needs of the heart are so imperious, these outpourings of amorous melancholy in young people are at once so sweet and so bitter, that they have often all the real marks of the passion.”
― Alexandre Dumas, quote from Twenty Years After

“[L]earn how to distinguish the king from royalty; the king is but a man; royalty is the gift of God. Whenever you hesitate as to whom you ought to serve, abandon the exterior, the material for the invisible principle, for the invisible principle is everything.”
― Alexandre Dumas, quote from Twenty Years After

“It is a bad year for kings,” said Gondy, shaking his head; “look at England, madame.”

“Yes; but fortunately we have no Oliver Cromwell in France,” replied the Queen.

“Who knows?” said Gondy; “such men are like thunderbolts—one recognized them only when they have struck.”
― Alexandre Dumas, quote from Twenty Years After

“My friend, she is a woman." "No, no, you are deceived--she is a queen.”
― Alexandre Dumas, quote from Twenty Years After

“It is necessary ... to yield to the storm, purchase a peace, and wait patiently for better times.”
― Alexandre Dumas, quote from Twenty Years After

“Sleep is a very capricious goddess, and it is precisely when she is invoked that she delays coming.
- Page 184”
― Alexandre Dumas, quote from Twenty Years After

“La sua giovinezza gli riapparve portando tutti i ricordi soavi, che sono profumi piuttosto che pensieri. Da quel passato al presente c’era un abisso. Ma la fantasia ha il volto dell’angelo e del baleno; essa varca i mari nei quali abbiamo corso il rischio di naufragare, le tenebre dove si sono perdute le nostre illusioni, gli abissi che hanno inghiottito la nostra felicità”
― Alexandre Dumas, quote from Twenty Years After

“Alas, madame!" exclaimed Athos, "to-day love is like war--the breastplate is becoming useless.”
― Alexandre Dumas, quote from Twenty Years After

“I would follow him to hell, and that is saying not a little, as I believe him entirely capable of the descent.”
― Alexandre Dumas, quote from Twenty Years After

“I hate the English--they are coarse, like every nation that swills beer.”
― Alexandre Dumas, quote from Twenty Years After

“El carruaje partió inmediatamente, y aprovechando Artagnan la oscuridad que reinaba en la bóveda bajo la cual pasaba, se arrojó en brazos del prisionero exclamando:
- ¡Rochefort! ¿Sois vos? ¡No me equivoco...!”
― Alexandre Dumas, quote from Twenty Years After

“We are judges of wounds, we old soldiers,”
― Alexandre Dumas, quote from Twenty Years After

“A love as tender as that of a lover for his mistress dwells, undoubtedly, in some paternal hearts toward a son.”
― Alexandre Dumas, quote from Twenty Years After

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“O Deep Thought computer," he said, "the task we have designed you to perform is this. We want you to tell us...." he paused, "The Answer."
"The Answer?" said Deep Thought. "The Answer to what?"
"Life!" urged Fook.
"The Universe!" said Lunkwill.
"Everything!" they said in chorus.
Deep Thought paused for a moment's reflection.
"Tricky," he said finally.
"But can you do it?"
Again, a significant pause.
"Yes," said Deep Thought, "I can do it."
"There is an answer?" said Fook with breathless excitement.
"Yes," said Deep Thought. "Life, the Universe, and Everything. There is an answer. But, I'll have to think about it."
...
Fook glanced impatiently at his watch.
“How long?” he said.
“Seven and a half million years,” said Deep Thought.
Lunkwill and Fook blinked at each other.
“Seven and a half million years...!” they cried in chorus.
“Yes,” declaimed Deep Thought, “I said I’d have to think about it, didn’t I?"

[Seven and a half million years later.... Fook and Lunkwill are long gone, but their descendents continue what they started]

"We are the ones who will hear," said Phouchg, "the answer to the great question of Life....!"
"The Universe...!" said Loonquawl.
"And Everything...!"
"Shhh," said Loonquawl with a slight gesture. "I think Deep Thought is preparing to speak!"
There was a moment's expectant pause while panels slowly came to life on the front of the console. Lights flashed on and off experimentally and settled down into a businesslike pattern. A soft low hum came from the communication channel.

"Good Morning," said Deep Thought at last.
"Er..good morning, O Deep Thought" said Loonquawl nervously, "do you have...er, that is..."
"An Answer for you?" interrupted Deep Thought majestically. "Yes, I have."
The two men shivered with expectancy. Their waiting had not been in vain.
"There really is one?" breathed Phouchg.
"There really is one," confirmed Deep Thought.
"To Everything? To the great Question of Life, the Universe and everything?"
"Yes."
Both of the men had been trained for this moment, their lives had been a preparation for it, they had been selected at birth as those who would witness the answer, but even so they found themselves gasping and squirming like excited children.
"And you're ready to give it to us?" urged Loonsuawl.
"I am."
"Now?"
"Now," said Deep Thought.
They both licked their dry lips.
"Though I don't think," added Deep Thought. "that you're going to like it."
"Doesn't matter!" said Phouchg. "We must know it! Now!"
"Now?" inquired Deep Thought.
"Yes! Now..."
"All right," said the computer, and settled into silence again. The two men fidgeted. The tension was unbearable.
"You're really not going to like it," observed Deep Thought.
"Tell us!"
"All right," said Deep Thought. "The Answer to the Great Question..."
"Yes..!"
"Of Life, the Universe and Everything..." said Deep Thought.
"Yes...!"
"Is..." said Deep Thought, and paused.
"Yes...!"
"Is..."
"Yes...!!!...?"
"Forty-two," said Deep Thought, with infinite majesty and calm.”
― Douglas Adams, quote from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

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