Alexandre Dumas Quotes That Inspire and Enlighten

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.

All for one and one for all.

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

It is sometimes necessary to lie damnably in the interests of the nation.

To love a person is to learn the song that is in their heart and to sing it to them when they have forgotten.

There is neither happiness nor misery in the world; there is only the comparison of one state with another, nothing more. He who has felt the deepest grief is best able to experience supreme happiness.

The merit of all things lies in their difficulty.

One should always be in love. This is the reason one should never marry.

Friendship consists in forgetting what one gives and remembering what one receives.

Death is only the doorway to a new life. We live today; we shall live again in many forms, and so on until we return to the original source.

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

It is not necessary to have enemies if you go out of your way to make friends hate you.

In love, we deceive ourselves and others easily.

Genius is the recovery of childhood at will.

Instinct is sometimes the most reliable guide.

Time, which sees all things, has found you out.

We all have our weaknesses. You just need to learn how to turn them into strengths.

A person is either your brother in faith or your equal in humanity.

Against criticism, a man can neither protest nor defend himself; he must act in spite of it and then it will gradually yield to him.

Wine enlarges the heart and makes it more ardent in love, but it weakens the mind and dulls the memory.

Adversity makes men, and prosperity makes monsters.

The chains of love are heavier than the chains of iron.

The greatest happiness in life is the conviction that we are loved.

Faith is an oasis in the heart which will never be reached by the caravan of thinking.

The bonds that unite true friends are not easily broken.

To learn to read is to light a fire; every syllable that is spelled out is a spark.

The nearer we approach to the end, the plainer we hear around us the immortal symphonies of the worlds which invite us.

The truth is, I love life so deeply that I find its mysteries everywhere.

It is rare for people to be asked the question which puts them squarely in front of themselves.

The first symptom of love in a young man is shyness; the first symptom in a woman, it’s boldness.

The best way to keep one’s word is not to give it.

Whenever my brain begins to reel from my literary labors, I make an occasional pound cake.

To be left alone is the most precious thing one can ask of the modern world.

The true nobility is in being superior to your previous self.

There is something in the human spirit that will survive and prevail. There is a tiny and brilliant light burning in the heart of man that will not go out no matter how dark the world becomes.

One can be a brother only in something. Where there is no tie that binds men, men are not united but merely lined up.

Love is not blind; it is an extra eye, which shows us what is most worthy of regard.

All human wisdom is contained in these two words: ‘Wait and hope.’

It is the mind that makes a man rich or poor.

We are not generally cold and ungrateful, but we need the sight of our fellow beings to excite our benevolence.

Happiness consists in contentment.

Mediocrity is excellent to the eyes of mediocre people.

Greater misfortunes than those which people know about do not somehow count.

I may be poor, but I am not mean, nor miserable, nor ambitious, nor insensible, but I feel that I myself have in me something great and imperishable, which riches does not diminish nor poverty enhance.

Nothing succeeds better than success.

Man has his will, but woman has her way.

There is neither happiness nor unhappiness in this world; there is only comparison of one state with another, nothing more. He who has felt the deepest grief is best able to experience supreme happiness.

Everyone can tell where a man is hurting. Smiles do not always mean happiness.

It is the unlimitedness of love that gives glamour and universal interest to the story of Tristan and Isolde.

I have never been an ambitious man… I am satisfied with my work.