Weekend Quote #7

“Tell the angel who will watch over your future destiny, Morrel, to pray sometimes for a man, who like Satan thought himself for an instant equal to God, but who now acknowledges with Christian humility that God alone possesses supreme power and infinite wisdom.”

Another quote from Monte Cristo. I think Dumas will dominate my blog this year. Let's save other authors for 2013.

This sentence is a part of the Count's letter to Maximillian, his last letter before returning to probably the East. The letter was brief, and mostly telling Morrel about his affection for him and his reason for his conducts towards the young man. He also informs Maximillian (goodness, what a long troublesome name to write) that he leaves some fortune for him as wedding gifts, which would make him a rich man, no doubt.

But the count only gives us two sentences about himself. The first is this weekend's quote. In all his conducts, in everything that he does as all other identities but Edmond Dantes, he always keeps that haughty air of a deity around him. For he says himself to Villefort this:

Yes, monsieur, I believe so; for until now, no man has found himself in a position similar to mine. The dominions of kings are limited either by mountains or rivers, or a change of manners, or an alteration of language. My kingdom is bounded only by the world... I have only two adversaries — I will not say two conquerors, for with perseverance I subdue even them,— they are time and distance. There is a third, and the most terrible — that is my condition as a mortal being... The rest I have reduced to mathematical terms. What men call the chances of fate — namely, ruin, change, circumstances — I have fully anticipated, and if any of these should overtake me, yet it will not overwhelm me. Unless I die, I shall always be what I am, and therefore it is that I utter the things you have never heard, even from the mouths of kings.

As proud as Satan himself indeed. And yet he says,

I have my pride for men... But I lay aside that pride before God, who has taken me from nothing to make me what I am.

The quote that I take today, reminds us all that there is something higher, wiser, and far more powerful than us, miserable human beings. And that He only is infallible, He only has the right to say, “I shall always be what I am,” because time changes everything, but He upon whom the time has no power.

That's my quote for the week. What's yours?
----------------------------------------------------------------

Weekend Quote is hosted by Half-Filled Attic. Feel free to join. You can:

• Give the context of the quote
• Give your opinion whether you agree or disagree with it
• Share your experience related to the quote
• Share similar quotes you remember
• Or anything else. Just have fun with the quote.