It is not the tree that forsakes the flower, but the flower that forsakes the tree.
Il y avait autour de la table cette hilarité bruyante et cette liberté individuelle qui accompagnent, chez les gens de condition inférieure, la fin des repas. Ceux qui étaient mécontents de leur place...
I wish to be Providence myself, for I feel that the most beautiful, noblest, most sublime thing in the world, is to recompense and punish.
I will follow him to hell, and that is saying not a little, as I believe him entirely capable of the descent.
I know the world is a drawing-room, from which we must retire politely and honestly; that is, with a bow, and our debts of honor paid.
I have no will, unless it be the will never to decide. I have been so overwhelmed by the many storms that have broken over my head, that I am become passive in the hands of the Almighty, like a sparro...
I am orderly out of spirit of idleness, to save myself the trouble of looking after things...
His eyebrows arched under a single, pensive line and his eyes themselves were imprinted with deep sadness, behind which from time to time could be seen dark flashes of misanthropy and hatred.
He's right: They have to put madmen with madmen.
Fool that I am, said he,that I did not tear out my heart the day I resolved to revenge myself.
Danglars was one of those men born with a pen behind the ear, and an inkstand in place of a heart. Everything with him was multiplication or subtraction.
But, it is well known, what strikes the capricious mind of the poet is not always what affects the mass of readers.
But Valentine, why despair, why always paint the future in such sombre hues? Maximilien asked. Because, my friend, I judge it by the past.
Before one is afraid, one sees clearly; while one is afraid, one sees double; and after being afraid, one sees dimly.
A weakened mind always sees everything through a black veil. The soul makes its own horizons; your soul is dark, which is why you see such a cloudy sky.
A rogue does not laugh in the same way that an honest man does; a hypocrite does not shed the tears of a man of good faith. All falsehood is a mask; and however well made the mask may be, with a littl...
Remember that what has once been done may be done again.
But he laughed as the English do at the end of his teeth.
And I will say to you, rude as it may seem, `My brother, you sacrifice greatly to pride; you may be above others, but above you there is God.
Your bitter memories still have time to turn into sweet ones.