The Man in the Iron Mask
by Alexandre Dumas
(Penguin, 1998)
I do not like to give myself up to longing for things that I do not possess, when I am so happy with what I have.
Page 12.
Ambition is … a feeling which prompts a man to desire more than he has.
Page 12.
I have no need to be a king to be the happiest of men.
Page 30.
The goal of punishment should be only to restore the balance.
Page 31.
It is good that the man of today should no longer know what the man of yesterday did.
Page 81.
There is conscience, which cries loud; remorse, which never dies.
Page 83.
Twins are one person in two bodies.
Page 185.
Great griefs contain within themselves the germ of their consolation.
Page 224.
Nothing replaces in the deeply afflicted heart the memory of the beloved object.
Page 224.
Love absolves everything.
Page 225.
Everyone journeys toward happiness by the road he chooses.
Page 252.
Man, upon this earth, must expect everything, and ought to face everything.
Page 270.
He who dies, gains. He who sees others die, loses.
Page 270.
It is never cowardly to do that which is imposed by a superior force.
Page 271.
Everything likes to live … everything is beautiful in living things.
Page 279.
They who are not pitied … have died uselessly.
Page 281.
We Frenchmen ought not to allow stupid infidels to triumph over our faults.
Page 281.
We must will what we wish for, unless we cannot do what we wish.
Page 304.
In a moment of despair, wood softens and stone becomes compliant under the breath the human
will.
Page 394.
If pride and flirtation have misled her, pardon her while despising her. If love has produced her error, I pardon her, swearing that no one could have loved her as I.
Page 459.
This love is a religion.
Page 459.
“Athos - Porthos, farewell till we meet again! Aramis, adieu forever!”
Page 485.