Alexandre Dumas

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

There were nobles, who made war against each other; there was the king, who made war against the cardinal; there was Spain, which made war against the king.

The Athenians, who indeed have left behind them a pretty tolerable reputation for ingratitude, have in this respect to yield precedence to the Dutch.

It was, alas! the ghost of former greatness.

“Do you not know,” one of the standers-by replied, “that Monsieur’s principal amusement is to weary himself?”

Alas! simply because during the first twenty years of our life, we have Hope for our guide, and during the last twenty, Reality.

But remorse is not thus banished; like Virgil’s wounded hero, he carried the arrow in his wound

The captain of the Musketeers was therefore admired, feared, and loved; and this constitutes the zenith of human fortune.

Here is a damsel who very likely does not know how to read, who consequently has never read anything, and yet with one word she has just told the whole history of the world.

My lord, I have been so long shut up, that I am only of one party⁠—I am for fresh air.

Sire, I have always seen that it was in desperate positions that suddenly the great turns of fortune have taken place.

For Providence in kindness, seeing that he cannot return to youth, allows youth to return to him.

Villefort would probably have rather stood opposite the muzzle of a pistol at five-and-twenty paces than have heard this name spoken; but he did not blanch.

Prudence, Monsieur, is a virtue sufficiently useless to Musketeers, I know, but indispensable to churchmen

“To be sure,” he said. “These people are really implacable. It does no one good to offend them.”

One believes readily what he wishes to believe.

I have always lived in a world where my simple word was regarded as the most sacred of oaths.

It was impossible to find anything to say after such a logical definition as this.

Yes; and remember that two-legged tigers and crocodiles are more dangerous than the others.

In royal antechambers it is worth more to be viewed with an angry eye than not to be seen at all.