A young girl must not be taken to the theatre, let us say it once for all. It is not only the drama which is immoral, but the place.
—Alexandre Dumas pere
Topics: Actors
I needed some real danger and some mortal risk to run, to tranquilize me.
—Alexandre Dumas pere
Topics: Danger
Truth is very liable to be left-handed in history.
—Alexandre Dumas pere
Topics: History
The custom and fashion of today will be the awkwardness and outrage of tomorrow — so arbitrary are these transient laws.
—Alexandre Dumas pere
Topics: Fashion, Custom
In Paris today, millions of pounds of bread are sold daily, made during the previous night by those strange, half-naked beings one glimpses through cellar windows, whose wild-seeming cries floating out of those depths always makes a painful impression. In the morning, one sees these pale men, still white with flour, carrying a loaf under one arm, going off to rest and gather new strength to renew their hard and useful labor when night comes again. I have always highly esteemed the brave and humble workers who labor all night to produce those soft but crusty loaves that look more like cake than bread.
—Alexandre Dumas pere
The way to check slander is to despise it; attempt to overtake and refute it, and it will outrun you.
—Alexandre Dumas pere
We enjoy thoroughly only the pleasure that we give.
—Alexandre Dumas pere
Topics: Pleasure
Friendship consists in forgetting what one gives, and remembering what one receives.
—Alexandre Dumas pere
Topics: Friendship
Oh, the good times when we were so unhappy
—Alexandre Dumas pere
Topics: Unhappiness, Pleasure, One liners
All for one, one for all, that is our device.
—Alexandre Dumas pere
A person who doubts himself is like a man who would enlist in the ranks of his enemies and bear arms against himself. He makes his failure certain by himself being the first person to be convinced of it.
—Alexandre Dumas pere
Topics: Confidence, Failure, Self-Discovery, Youth, Uncertainty, Doubt
Business, that’s easily defined; it’s other people’s money.
—Alexandre Dumas pere
Topics: Business
There is nothing more galling to angry people than the coolness of those on whom they wish to vent their spleen.
—Alexandre Dumas pere
Topics: Anger
Pure love and suspicion cannot dwell together: at the door where the latter enters, the former makes its exit.
—Alexandre Dumas pere
All human wisdom is summed up in two words — wait and hope.
—Alexandre Dumas pere
Topics: Wisdom
Infatuated, half through conceit, half through love of my art, I achieve the impossible working as no one else ever works.
—Alexandre Dumas pere
Topics: Effort
It is only rarely that one can see in a little boy the promise of a man, but one can almost always see in a little girl the threat of a woman.
—Alexandre Dumas pere
Topics: Women
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. We must have felt what it is to die, that we may appreciate the enjoyments of life.
—Alexandre Dumas pere
Happiness is like those palaces in fairy tales whose gates are guarded by dragons: we must fight in order to conquer it.
—Alexandre Dumas pere
Topics: Happiness
There is no friendship that cares about an overheard secret.
—Alexandre Dumas pere
Topics: Gossip
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
Francois-Rene de Chateaubriand French Writer, Statesman
Antoine de Saint-Exupery French Novelist, Aviator
Emile Zola French Novelist
Alexandre Dumas fils French Dramatist, Novelist
Alfred de Musset French Poet, Playwright
Jules Verne French Novelist
Francois de La Rochefoucauld French Writer
Honore de Balzac French Novelist
Andre Maurois French Novelist, Biographer
Marguerite Duras French Novelist, Playwright