Those born to wealth, and who have the means of gratifying every wish, know not what is to suffer.
He draws a hard social line between comfort and comprehension. This is the prison speaking—the part of Edmond that watches the rich treat pain as rumor. The maxim also justifies his elaborate tests: he makes the powerful taste limits. Emotionally, it lands as both bitter and diagnostic. Readers hear the class critique without a lecture. The Count’s mercy later complicates this stance. But he never forgets who sleeps better.