The Count of Monte Cristo

The moccoletti is like life: man has found but one means of transmitting it, and that one comes from God. But he has discovered a thousand means of taking it away, although the devil has somewhat aided him. 

~Alexandre Dumas

--

"I would rather die standing than live on my knees."

~Stéphane Charbonnier

The Count of Monte Cristo

"To learn is not to know; there are the learners and the learned. Memory makes the one, philosophy the other."

~Alexandre Dumas (said by character Abbé Faria)

Why We Broke Up

We couldn't only have magic nights buzzing through the wires. We had to have the days, too, the bright impatient days spoiling everything with their unavoidable schedules, their mandatory times that don't overlap, their loyal friends who don't get along, the unforgiven travesties torn from the wall no matter what promises are uttered past midnight, and that's why we broke up. 

~Daniel Handler

The Bell Jar

And I knew that in spite of all the roses and kisses and restaurant dinners a man showered on a woman before he married her, what he secretly wanted when the wedding service ended was for her to flatten out underneath his feet like Mrs. Willard's kitchen mat. 

~Sylvia Plath

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

And would it have been worth it, after all,

After the cups, the marmalade, the tea,

Among the porcelain, among some talk of you and me,

Would it have been worth while,

To have bitten off the matter with a smile,

To have squeezed the universe into a ball

To roll it towards some overwhelming question,

To say: "I am Lazarus, come from the dead,

Come back to tell you all, I shall tell you all"--

If one, settling a pillow by her head, 

Should say: "That is not what I meant at all. That is not it, at all."

~T.S. Eliot

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

Do I dare

Disturb the universe? 

~T.S. Eliot