All 49 Uses of
providence
in
The Count of Monte Cristo
- There's a providence that watches over the deserving.†
Chpt 1-2 *
- "For my part, dear mother." interposed Renee, "I trust your wishes will not prosper, and that Providence will only permit petty offenders, poor debtors, and miserable cheats to fall into M. de Villefort's hands,—then I shall be contented."†
Chpt 5-6
- "Sire," said Villefort, "the suddenness of this event must prove to your majesty that the issue is in the hands of Providence; what your majesty is pleased to attribute to me as profound perspicacity is simply owing to chance, and I have profited by that chance, like a good and devoted servant—that's all.†
Chpt 11-12
- Then all looked at each other,—he was made to take an oath, and did so, but with such an ill grace that it was really tempting Providence to swear him, and yet, in spite of that, the general was allowed to depart free—perfectly free.†
Chpt 11-12
- Danglars comprehended the full extent of the wretched fate that overwhelmed Dantes; and, when Napoleon returned to France, he, after the manner of mediocre minds, termed the coincidence, "a decree of Providence."†
Chpt 13-14
- "Monsieur," returned the inspector, "providence has changed this gigantic plan you advocate so warmly."†
Chpt 13-14
- How inscrutable are the ways of providence—for what great and mysterious purpose has it pleased heaven to abase the man once so elevated, and raise up him who was so abased?†
Chpt 15-16
- So life went on for them as it does for those who are not victims of misfortune and whose activities glide along mechanically and tranquilly beneath the eye of providence.†
Chpt 19-20
- At length providence has done something for you; he restores to you more than he takes away, and it was time I should die.†
Chpt 19-20
- …to the Provencal, and this, while it spared him interpreters, persons always troublesome and frequently indiscreet, gave him great facilities of communication, either with the vessels he met at sea, with the small boats sailing along the coast, or with the people without name, country, or occupation, who are always seen on the quays of seaports, and who live by hidden and mysterious means which we must suppose to be a direct gift of providence, as they have no visible means of support.†
Chpt 22-23
- The cause was not in Dantes, but in providence, who, while limiting the power of man, has filled him with boundless desires.†
Chpt 23-24
- Still, let it not be supposed that amid this affected resignation to the will of Providence, the unfortunate inn-keeper did not writhe under the double misery of seeing the hateful canal carry off his customers and his profits, and the daily infliction of his peevish partner's murmurs and lamentations.†
Chpt 25-26
- Morrel took the head of his son between his two hands, drew him forward, and kissing his forehead several times said, "Oh, yes, yes, I bless you in my own name, and in the name of three generations of irreproachable men, who say through me, 'The edifice which misfortune has destroyed, providence may build up again.'†
Chpt 29-30
- As the count was immensely rich, excepting the danger Carmela had run,—and the marvellous manner in which she had escaped, made that appear to him rather a favor of providence than a real misfortune,—the loss occasioned by the conflagration was to him but a trifle.†
Chpt 33-34
- This is not chance, for chance, in this case, is too much like providence.†
Chpt 43-44
- Well, amiable Corsican, let us suppose it is providence.†
Chpt 43-44
- In the interim it pleased providence to cause the apprehension of Caderousse, who was discovered in some distant country, and brought back to France, where he made a full confession, refusing to make the fact of his wife's having suggested and arranged the murder any excuse for his own guilt.†
Chpt 45-46
- I reflected long, for a gnawing ambition had long preyed upon me, and then I replied, 'Listen,—I have always heard of providence, and yet I have never seen him, or anything that resembles him, or which can make me believe that he exists.†
Chpt 47-48
- 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.'†
Chpt 47-48
- 'You mistake,' he said, 'providence does exist, only you have never seen him, because the child of God is as invisible as the parent.†
Chpt 47-48
- All I can do for you is to make you one of the agents of that providence.'†
Chpt 47-48
- …to refute you, and I will show you my father, M. Noirtier de Villefort, one of the most fiery Jacobins of the French Revolution; that is to say, he had the most remarkable audacity, seconded by a most powerful organization—a man who has not, perhaps, like yourself seen all the kingdoms of the earth, but who has helped to overturn one of the greatest; in fact, a man who believed himself, like you, one of the envoys, not of God, but of a supreme being; not of providence, but of fate.†
Chpt 47-48
- I am something of a physician, and have, like my fellows, sought more than once for the soul in living and in dead matter; yet, like providence, it has remained invisible to my eyes, although present to my heart.†
Chpt 47-48
- I kept in the background, as you wished, and waited, not for the decision of your heart or my own, but hoping that providence would graciously interpose in our behalf, and order events in our favor.†
Chpt 51-52
- "Instead of signing"— "I will go to you, and we will fly; but from this moment until then, let us not tempt providence, let us not see each other.†
Chpt 73-74
- It is a miracle, it is a providence that we have not been discovered.†
Chpt 73-74
- Locusta and Agrippina, living at the same time, were an exception, and proved the determination of providence to effect the entire ruin of the Roman empire, sullied by so many crimes.†
Chpt 79-80
- "No; for I saw God's justice placed in the hands of Benedetto, and should have thought it sacrilege to oppose the designs of providence."†
Chpt 83-84
- There is no God; there is no providence—all comes by chance.†
Chpt 83-84
- "— "There is a providence; there is a God," said Monte Cristo, "of whom you are a striking proof, as you lie in utter despair, denying him, while I stand before you, rich, happy, safe and entreating that God in whom you endeavor not to believe, while in your heart you still believe in him."†
Chpt 83-84
- Yes, Albert, from whatever source the blow may have proceeded—it may be from an enemy, but that enemy is only the agent of providence.†
Chpt 87-88
- I cannot calmly say with you, 'Providence has struck the blow;' but I must discover who pursues me with this hatred, and when I have found him I shall kill him, or he will kill me.†
Chpt 87-88
- Providence appears to me to have no share in this affair; and happily so, for instead of the invisible, impalpable agent of celestial rewards and punishments, I shall find one both palpable and visible, on whom I shall revenge myself, I assure you, for all I have suffered during the last month.†
Chpt 87-88
- It is not I who strike M. de Morcerf; it is providence which punishes him.†
Chpt 89-90
- "And why do you represent providence?" cried Mercedes.†
Chpt 89-90
- Providence is now opposed to them, when I most thought it would be propitious.†
Chpt 89-90
- Oh, shall I then, again become a fatalist, whom fourteen years of despair and ten of hope had rendered a believer in providence?†
Chpt 89-90
- Let them know, on the contrary, that their punishment, which had been decreed by providence, is only delayed by my present determination, and although they escape it in this world, it awaits them in another, and that they are only exchanging time for eternity.†
Chpt 89-90
- While he was thus agitated by gloomy uncertainties,—wretched waking dreams of grief,—the first rays of morning pierced his windows, and shone upon the pale blue paper on which he had just inscribed his justification of providence.†
Chpt 89-90
- "Providence still," murmured he; "now only am I fully convinced of being the emissary of God!"†
Chpt 89-90
- Keep the struggle for yourself, bear all the suffering, but spare her the trial of poverty which must accompany your first efforts; for she deserves not even the shadow of the misfortune which has this day fallen on her, and providence is not willing that the innocent should suffer for the guilty.†
Chpt 91-92
- "At any rate," said she, "since I am to be married whether I will or not, I ought to be thankful to providence for having released me from my engagement with M. Albert de Morcerf, or I should this day have been the wife of a dishonored man."†
Chpt 93-94
- And her glance was turned towards heaven, where a mysterious providence disposes all things, and out of a fault, nay, even a vice, sometimes produces a blessing.†
Chpt 99-100
- Oh, leave me, sir; you are tempting me—you make me doubt the goodness of providence—it is impossible, it cannot be!†
Chpt 99-100
- Monte Cristo gently laid his hand on the young girl's arm, drew the velvet coverlet close to her throat, and said with a paternal smile,—"My child, believe in my devotion to you as you believe in the goodness of providence and the love of Maximilian."†
Chpt 101-102
- One day when I cursed Providence for making me so wicked, and ordaining me to such a fate, my adopted father said to me, 'Do not blaspheme, unhappy child, the crime is that of your father, not yours,—of your father, who consigned you to hell if you died, and to misery if a miracle preserved you alive.'†
Chpt 109-110
- He was about to marry her, when one of the caprices of fate,—which would almost make us doubt the goodness of providence, if that providence did not afterwards reveal itself by proving that all is but a means of conducting to an end,—one of those caprices deprived him of his mistress, of the future of which he had dreamed (for in his blindness he forgot he could only read the present), and cast him into a dungeon.†
Chpt 113-114
- He was about to marry her, when one of the caprices of fate,—which would almost make us doubt the goodness of providence, if that providence did not afterwards reveal itself by proving that all is but a means of conducting to an end,—one of those caprices deprived him of his mistress, of the future of which he had dreamed (for in his blindness he forgot he could only read the present), and cast him into a dungeon.†
Chpt 113-114
- "Yes; but your father died in your arms, happy, respected, rich, and full of years; his father died poor, despairing, almost doubtful of providence; and when his son sought his grave ten years afterwards, his tomb had disappeared, and no one could say, 'There sleeps the father you so well loved.'†
Chpt 113-114
Definition:
-
(providence as in: divine providence) resulting from God's intervention or plan; or lucky -- especially with regard to when something happened