The Count of Monte Cristo

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fellow-creatures, and found out their weaknesses. I have always found
them; and more,--I repeat it with joy, with triumph,--I have always
found some proof of human perversity or error. Every criminal I condemn
seems to me living evidence that I am not a hideous exception to the
rest. Alas, alas, alas; all the world is wicked; let us therefore strike
at wickedness!"

Villefort pronounced these last words with a feverish rage, which gave a
ferocious eloquence to his words.

"But"' said Madame Danglars, resolving to make a last effort, "this
young man, though a murderer, is an orphan, abandoned by everybody."

"So much the worse, or rather, so much the better; it has been so
ordained that he may have none to weep his fate."

"But this is trampling on the weak, sir."