We must never expect discretion in first love: it is accompanied by such excessive joy that unless the joy is allowed to overflow, it will choke you.
Alexandre DumasRead
When a man resolves to avenge himself, he should first of all tear out the heart from his breast.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that seeking revenge requires overcoming deep emotional attachments.
In this quote, Alexandre Dumas emphasizes the emotional toll of vengeance. He implies that before pursuing revenge, one must detach from their emotions, as feelings of anger and desire for retribution can cloud judgment and lead to negative consequences. The act of 'tearing out the heart' symbolizes the need for emotional detachment and the heavy burden that comes with a quest for revenge.
Themes
RevengeEmotionDetachmentPhilosophyAngerConsequences
In practice
Example use cases
During a seminar on emotional intelligence, this quote could illustrate the dangers of letting revenge control one's actions.
More from Alexandre Dumas
All quotes βThere are two ways of seeing: with the body and with the soul. The body's sight can sometimes forget, but the soul remembers forever.
Alexandre DumasRead
I do not often laugh, sir, as you may perceive by the air of my countenance; but nevertheless, I retain the privilege of laughing when I please.
Alexandre DumasRead
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.
Alexandre DumasRead
Those born to wealth, and who have the means of gratifying every wish, know not what is the real happiness of life, just as those who have been tossed on the stormy waters of the ocean on a few frail planks can alone realize the blessings of fair weather.
Alexandre DumasRead
It is the way of weakened minds to see everything through a black cloud. The soul forms its own horizons; your soul is darkened, and consequently the sky of the future appears stormy and unpromising
Alexandre DumasRead
Similar quotes
The whole universe is composed of name and form. Whatever we see is either a compound of name and form, or simply name with form which is a mental image.
Swami VivekanandaRead
We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Thomas JeffersonRead
If you live today, you breath in nihilism ... it's the gas you breathe. If I hadn't had the Church to fight it with or to tell me the necessity of fighting it, I would be the stinkingest logical positivist you ever saw right now.
Flannery O'ConnorRead
I find it as difficult to understand a scientist who does not acknowledge the presence of a superior rationality behind the existence of the universe as it is to comprehend a theologian who would deny the advances of science.
Wernher Von BraunRead
Our little solos are a note in an immense chorus vibrating grandly through the universe, a chorus which accepts and harmonizes the whir of the cricket and the long drum-roll of the stars.
Harriet MonroeRead
Give me the luxuries of life and I will willingly do without the necessities.
Frank Lloyd WrightRead