Alexandre Dumas Quotes: Sources, Meanings & Themes
Browse quotations by Alexandre Dumas with named works, context notes, meanings and recurring themes.
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“But there is this terrible thing in evil thoughts, that evil minds soon grow familiar with them.”
Meaning & context
The narrator warns that repeatedly entertaining a harmful idea can reduce the resistance a person initially feels toward acting on it.
Source details
The Black Tulip, Chapter VIII, “An Invasion,” Project Gutenberg #965. Exact-witness review corrects the inherited Chapter VI locator: the narrator says that evil minds soon grow familiar with evil thoughts immediately after Boxtel first shrinks from informing against Van Baerle and before he rationalizes the act.
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“All human wisdom is summed up in these two words,—‘Wait and hope.’”
Meaning & context
At the novel’s close, the Count reduces his hard-earned counsel to patience joined with hope rather than certainty about what the future will bring.
Source details
The Count of Monte Cristo, closing letter, Project Gutenberg #1184, in the represented public-domain English translation. Edmond Dantès writes the advice to Morrel and Valentine; the English wording is translation-specific and is fictional counsel, not a direct English-language aphorism authored by Dumas.
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“All for one, one for all—that is our motto, is it not?”
Meaning & context
D’Artagnan turns the four companions’ alliance into a compact of mutual loyalty, making shared commitment more important than acting as isolated individuals.
Source details
The Three Musketeers, Chapter IX, “D’Artagnan Shows Himself,” Project Gutenberg #1257. D’Artagnan proposes “All for one, one for all” and Athos, Porthos and Aramis repeat the formula together immediately before Chapter X begins. The English wording is translated fictional dialogue and a solidarity motto within the novel, not Alexandre Dumas autobiography.