Alexandre Dumas

“I began a poem in lines of one syllable. It's rather difficult, but the merit of all things lies in their difficulty. The subject matter is gallant. I'll read you the first canto; it's four hundred verses long and takes one minute.”

“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.”

“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 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.”

“You are my son Dantés! You are the child of my captivity. My priestly office condemned me to celibacy: God sent you to me both to console the man who could not be a father and the prisoner who could not be free”

“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 protect me -- indeed, I might add, which generally takes no heed of me except to do me harm -- and, since I hold them low in my esteem and remain neutral towards them, I believe that society and my neighbor are in my debt.”

“Valentine reposes within the walls of Paris, and to leave Paris is like losing her a second time.""Maximilian," said the count, "the friends that we have lost do not repose in the bosom of the earth, but are buried deep in our hearts, and it has been thus ordained that we may always be accompanied by them.”

“There is something so awe-inspiring in great afflictions that even in the worst times the first emotion of a crowd has generally been to sympathise with the sufferer in a great catastrophe.”

“לפעמים אנו סובלים עד כדי כך שלעולם אין לנו זכות לומר: 'אני מאוד מאושר'.”

“חסרה לי התלבושת – אך לא הרוח. לבי הוא לב מוסקטר.”

“כולם למען אחד. אחד למען כולם.”

“ועד ליום בו יואיל האלוהים לגלות את העתיד לבני האדם, תצטמצם כל החוכמה האנושית במילים: לחכות ולקוות.”

“אלוהים הוא המפלט האחרון, והאומללים אינם מגיעים אליו אלא לאחר שמיצו את כל התקוות האחרות.”

“בזכותנו לדבר סרה בנשים, אך אין לנו הזכות לדבר סרה באישה.”

“באהבה, מי שמטיל ספק מאשים.”

“בדרך כלל אנו מבקשים עצה כדי להתעלם ממנה.”

“אמהות סולחות תמיד. לשם כך הן באו לעולם.”

“העת העתיקה היא האריסטוקרטיה של ההיסטוריה.”

“ישנם שירותים כה גדולים עד כי אין אנו יכולים לשלם עבורם אלא בכפיות טובה.”

“כסף הוא כסף, תהיינה אשר תהיינה הידיים שבהן הוא נמצא. זו העוצמה היחידה שעליה אין אנו מערערים לעולם.”