But the kings of modern times, restrained by the limits of mere probability, have neither courage nor desire. They fear the eat that hears their orders, and the eye that scrutinizes their actions.

Forward! Still forward!" said he. "When it shall be time, God will tell me, as he has told the others.

Armed to the teeth?" "He had not even a knitting-needle.

... behind any happiness present, a future fear is hidden.

Yes, you are baron for the servants, ladies for journalists, citizen for your voters. They are shades that adapt a lot to a constitutional government. I understand perfectly.

let us call on M. de Monte Cristo; he is admirably adapted to revive one's spirits, because he never interrogates, and in my opinion those who ask no questions are the best comforters.

One must ask for death to know how good it is to live

what despair to see a woman one loves longing for those thousand nothings from which women compose their happiness, and to be unable to give her those thousand nothings.

God may seem sometimes to forget for a while, whilst his justice reposes, but there always comes a moment when he remembers.

Shall we make a positive appointment for a particular day and hour? inquired the count; only let me warn you that I am proverbial for my punctilious exactitude in keeping my engagements.

My opinion is, that all these old podestas, these ancient condottieri, - for the Cavalcanti have commanded armies and governed provinces, - my opinion, I say, is, that they have buried their millions...

The heart breaks when it has swelled too much in the warm breath of hope, then finds itself enclosed in cold reality.

What tender threads do life and death hang

Melancholy in a capitalist, like the appearance of a comet, presages some misfortune to the world.

Sleeping on a plank has one advantage - it encourages early rising.

Happy! who can answer for that? Happiness or unhappiness is the secret known but to oneself…

As for herself, she returned to her seat with a smile of savage scorn upon her lips, and she blasphemously repeated the fearful name of that God by whom she had just sworn, without ever having learned...

Very well, young man, very well," Treville went on, "I know those airs. I came to Paris with four ecus in my pocket, and I'd have fought with anybody who told me I was in no condition to buy the...