She is not my mistress,' replied the young sailor gravely, ‘she is my betrothed.’

'Sometimes one and the same thing,' said Morrel, with a smile.

'Not with us, sir,' replied Dantes.

Enough,' said Mercedes, 'enough Edmond! Believe me that she who alone recognized you has been the only one to comprehend you. And had she crossed your path, and you had crushed her like a frail glass, still, Edmond, still she must have admired you! Like the gulf between me and the past, there is an abyss between you, Edmond, and the rest of mankind; and I tell you freely, that the comparison I drew between you and other men will be one of my greatest tortures. No! there is nothing in the world to resemble you in worth and goodness!

The material world coexists alongside the ideal life, and the purest intentions are bound to the earth by ridiculous threads, but they are threads of iron and they are not easily broken.

It is almost as difficult to keep a first class person in a fourth class job, as it is to keep a fourth class person in a first class job.

Happiness is like those palaces in fairy tales whose gates are guarded by dragons: we must fight in order to conquer it.

All generalizations are dangerous, even this one.