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. We must have felt what it is to die, Morrel, that we may appreciate the enjoyments of living.
The Count rewrites happiness as contrast, not constant sunshine. The paradox honors suffering without worshipping it, arguing that pain can widen the heart’s range. It’s a theory born of a cell and tempered by power—his way of making sense of both. The letter is balm for Maximilien and Valentine and a quiet apology for the harm his schemes caused. Readers often keep this as a life-raft sentence. It turns the revenge epic into a meditation on endurance. The light here doesn’t erase the dark; it learns from it.