Count of Monte Cristo was written by a French author, Alexander Dumas, in the year 1844. It is a timeless classic and its characters and storyline are a familiar face in pop culture all over. Edmond Dantès, the protagonist, is engaged to be married to his fiancée Mercédès. He is falsely accused and sent to jail without trial to the Château d’If, a grim island fortress off Marseille.
What follows is the complex tale of justice and vengeance exacted by Dantès, now going by the name ‘The Count of Monte Cristo’. Check out the top Count of Monte Cristo quotes here.
The Count of Monte Cristo Quotes That Give You Chill
The Count of Monte Cristo Quotes on Justice
#1. “I cannot think that man is meant to find happiness so easily! Happiness is like one of those palaces on an enchanted island, its gates guarded by dragons. One must fight to gain it; and, in truth, I do not know what I have done to deserve the good fortune of becoming Mercédès’ husband.” — Dantès.
#2. “Sometimes I amuse myself by carrying off from human justice some bandit it had its eye on, some criminal whom it pursues. Then I have my mode of dispensing justice, silent and sure, without respite or appeal, which condemns or pardons, and which no one sees.” — Dantès.
#3. “An all-wise Providence does not permit sinners to escape so easily from the punishment they have merited on earth, but reserves them to aid its own designs, using them as instruments whereby to work its vengeance on the guilty.” — Dantès.
#4. “He could not help reflecting that the same house had recently received two women, one of whom, justly dishonored, had left with 1,500,000 francs under her coat, while the other, unjustly stricken, but sublime in her misfortune was yet rich with a mite.” — Alexander Dumas.
#5. “Society, attacked by the death of a person, avenges death by death. But are there not a thousand tortures by which a man may be made to suffer without society taking the smallest note of them, or offering him even the insufficient means of vengeance of which we have just spoken?” — Alexander Dumas.
#6. “It is with the criminal procedure of all nations that I have compared natural justice, and I must say, sir, that it is the law of primitive nations, that is, the law of retaliation that I have most frequently found to be according to the law of God.” — Dantès.
#7. “To learn is not to know; there are the learners and the learned. Memory makes the one, philosophy the other.” — Edmond.
The Count of Monte Cristo Quotes on Honor
#8. “I owe my life and the honor of my name to you; for had this been made public, oh, Beauchamp, I should have shot myself; or no, my poor mother! I could not have killed her by the same blow. I should have fled from my country.” — Albert de Morcerf.
#9. “Oh, do not fear the scaffold, madame, I will not dishonor you, since that would be to dishonor myself.” — Villefort.
#10. “You do not suppose, that publicly outraged in the face of a whole theatre, in the presence of your friends and those of your son, challenged by a boy, who will glory in my pardon as in a victory; you do not suppose I can for one moment wish to live.” — Mercédès.
#11. “If I live, I am only a man who has broken his word, failed in his engagements. If I lived, you would feel shame at my name; when I am dead, you may raise your head and say, “I am the son of the man you killed, because, for the first time, he was compelled to fail in his word.” — Monsieur Morrel.
#12. “The general has just blown his brains out. A dead father or husband is better than a dishonored one; blood washes out shame.” — Monte Cristo.
#13. “I have been taken by Satan into the highest mountain in the earth, and when there he said to me, ‘Child of earth, what wouldst thou have to make thee adore me?’ I replied, ‘Listen, 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.’” — Monte Cristo. The Count of Monte Cristo Quotes on Vengeance
#14. “This is a glorious day for me, for I find at last the opportunity of avenging my father.” — Haydee.
#15. “No! no! The doubts I felt were the first stage of the process of forgetting; but in this place, my heart rises up once more and cries out for revenge!” — Dantès.
#16. “And now, farewell, kindness, humanity, and gratitude! Farewell to all the feelings which expand the heart! I have been Heaven’s substitute to recompense the good, now the God of Vengeance yields to me his power to punish the wicked!” — Dantès
#17. “Well! the French did not avenge themselves on the traitor; the Spaniards did not shoot the traitor; Ali, in his tomb, left the traitor unpunished; but I, betrayed, sacrificed, buried, have risen from my tomb, by the grace of God, to punish that man. He sends me for that purpose, and here I am.” — Mercédès.
#18. “He condemned these unknown persecutors to the most horrible tortures he could imagine, but found them all insufficient, because after the torture came death, and after death, if not repose, at least that insensibility that resembles it.” — Dantès.
#19. “I regret now, having helped you in your late inquiries, or having given you the information I did. Because it has instilled a new passion in your heart, that of vengeance.” — Abbé Faria.
#20. “I would fight a duel for a trifle, for an insult, for a blow; and the more so, that, thanks to my skill in all physical exercises, and the indifference to the danger I have gradually acquired, I should be almost certain to kill my man. Oh! I would fight for such a cause, but in return for a slow, profound, eternal suffering, I would render the same were it possible: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, as the Orientalists say.” — Dantès.
Conclusion
The tale of misery, vengeance and pain ends here, in its beautiful quotes that make one sound like they were French Royalty speaking in English themselves. We see the growth of a simple sailor boy who wished to wed the woman he loved, to the man acting in the name of God to punish wrongdoers and save the good.
The novel talks of darker themes, when compared to other classical texts of its time, but it is a stunning portrayal of Alexander Dumas’ skill as a writer and continues to capture the minds of readers today.
Image source: Count of Monte Cristo photo from www.simplyhe.com
