Les Liaisons dangereuses Quotes

“When one woman strikes at the heart of another, she seldom misses, and the wound is invariably fatal.”
― Choderlos de Laclos, Les Liaisons dangereuses

“Humanity is not perfect in any fashion; no more in the case of evil than in that of good. The criminal has his virtues, just as the honest man has his weaknesses.”
― Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, Les Liaisons dangereuses

“Now, I'm not going to deny that I was aware of your beauty. But the point is, this has nothing to do with your beauty. As I got to know you, I began to realise that beauty was the least of your qualities. I became fascinated by your goodness. I was drawn in by it. I didn't understand what was happening to me. And it was only when I began to feel actual, physical pain every time you left the room that it finally dawned on me: I was in love, for the first time in my life. I knew it was hopeless, but that didn't matter to me. And it's not that I want to have you. All I want is to deserve you. Tell me what to do. Show me how to behave. I'll do anything you say.”
― Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, Les Liaisons dangereuses

“Truth to tell, the longer I live, the more I'm tempted to think that the only moderately worthwhile people in the world are you and I.”
― Choderlos de Laclos, Les Liaisons Dangereuses

“A man enjoys the happiness he feels, a woman the happiness she gives.”
― Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, Les Liaisons dangereuses

“How characteristic of your perverse heart that longs only for what happens to be out of reach.”
― Pierre A.F. Choderlos de Laclos, Les Liaisons dangereuses

“You may conquer her love of God: you will never overcome her fear of the devil.”
― Pierre A.F. Choderlos de Laclos, Les Liaisons dangereuses

“I willingly allow that money does not guarantee happiness; but it must also be allowed that it makes happiness a great deal easier to achieve.”
― Pierre A.F. Choderlos de Laclos, Les Liaisons dangereuses

“...it is not for the illusion of a moment to govern the choice of a lifetime.”
― Pierre A.F. Choderlos de Laclos, Les Liaisons dangereuses

“I shall possess this woman; I shall steal her from the husband who profanes her: I will even dare ravish her from the God whom she adores. What delight, to be in turns the object and the victor of her remorse! Far be it from me to destroy the prejudices which sway her mind! They will add to my happiness and my triumph. Let her believe in virtue, and sacrifice it to me; let the idea of falling terrify her, without preventing her fall; and may she, shaken by a thousand terrors, forget them, vanquish them only in my arms.”
― Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, Les Liaisons dangereuses

“I can see that you're in love, but only in a very narrow sense. It's the love of someone that finds charms and qualities in a woman that she doesn't actually have, who puts her in a class apart with every one else in second place, and who stays attached to her even while he's abusing her.”
― Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, Les Liaisons dangereuses

“Don't you remember that love, like medicine, is only the art of encouraging nature?”
― Pierre A.F. Choderlos de Laclos, Les Liaisons dangereuses

“I see you are already as timid as a slave: you might as well be in love.”
― Pierre A.F. Choderlos de Laclos, Les Liaisons dangereuses

“I am astonished at the pleasure one experiences in doing good; and I should be tempted to believe that what we call virtuous people have not so much merit as they lead us to suppose.”
― Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, Les Liaisons dangereuses

“On s'ennuie de tout, mon ange, c'est une loi de la nature; ce n'est pas ma faute.
Si donc, je m'ennuie aujourd'hui d'une aventure qui m'a occupé entièrement depuis quatre mortels mois, ce n'est pas ma faute.
Si, par exemple, j'ai eu juste autant d'amour que toi de vertu, et c'est surement beaucoup dire, il n'est pas étonnant que l'un ait fini en même temps que l'autre. Ce n'est pas ma faute.
Il suit de là, que depuis quelque temps je t'ai trompée: mais aussi ton impitoyable tendresse m'y forçait en quelque sorte! Ce n'est pas ma faute.
Aujourd'hui, une femme que j'aime éperdument exige que je te sacrifie. Ce n'est pas ma faute.
Je sens bien que voilà une belle occasion de crier au parjure: mais si la Nature n'a accordé aux hommes que la constance, tandis qu'elle donnait aux femmes l'obstination, ce n'est pas ma faute.
Crois-moi, choisis un autre amant, comme j'ai fait une maîtresse. Ce conseil est bon, très bon; si tu le trouve mauvais, ce n'est pas ma faute.
Adieu, mon ange, je t'ai prise avec plaisir, je te quitte sans regrets: je te reviendrai peut-être. Ainsi va le monde. Ce n'est pas ma faute.”
― Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, Les liaisons dangereuses

“One must not permit oneself excesses, except with persons whom one wishes soon to leave.”
― Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, Les Liaisons dangereuses

“Your orders are charming; your manner of giving them still more delightful; you would make tyranny itself adored.”
― Choderlos de Laclos, Les Liaisons Dangereuses

“It has become necessary for me to have this woman, so as to save myself from the ridicule of being in love with her: for to what lengths will a man not be driven by thwarted desire?”
― Pierre A.F. Choderlos de Laclos, Les Liaisons dangereuses

“C'est de l'amour, ou il n'en exista jamais: vous le niez bien de cent façons: mais vous le prouvez de mille.”
― Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, Les liaisons dangereuses

“He'd call me false and faithless and I've always had a weakness for those two words; next to cruel, they're the nicest words for a woman to hear, and not so hard to earn.”
― Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, Les Liaisons dangereuses

“It was there, in particular, that I confirmed the truth that love, which we cry up as the source of our pleasures, is nothing more than an excuse for them.”
― Pierre A.F. Choderlos de Laclos, Les Liaisons dangereuses

“They have neither thought nor being, and merely repeat indifferently and uncomprehendingly everything they hear, retaining within themselves an absolute void.”
― Laclos, Les Liaisons dangereuses

“I perceive your lovers purely as the successors of Alexander the Great, incompetent joint rulers of an empire where I once ruled supreme.”
― Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, Les Liaisons dangereuses

“Love, hatred, you have only to choose; they all sleep under the same roof; you can double your existence, caress with one hand and strike with the other.”
― Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, Les Liaisons dangereuses

“When I came out into society I was 15. I already knew then that the role I was condemned to, namely to keep quiet and do what I was told, gave me the perfect opportunity to listen and observe. Not to what people told me, which naturally was of no interest to me, but to whatever it was they were trying to hide. I practiced detachment. I learned how to look cheerful while under the table I stuck a fork onto the back of my hand. I became a virtuoso of deceit. I consulted the strictest moralists to learn how to appear, philosophers to find out what to think, and novelist to see what I could get away with, and in the end it all came down to one wonderfully simple principle: win or die.”
― Choderlos de Laclos, Les Liaisons Dangereuses

“J'ai bien besoin d'avoir cette femme, pour me sauver du ridicule d'en être amoureux:”
― Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, Les liaisons dangereuses

“Oh, keep your warnings and your fears for those giddy women who call themselves women of feeling, whose heated imaginations persuade them that nature has placed their senses in their heads; who, having never thought about it, invariably confuse love with a lover; who, with their stupid delusions, imagine that the man with whom they have found pleasure is pleasure's only source; and, like all the superstitious, accord that faith and respect to the priest which is due to only the divinity.”
― Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, Les Liaisons dangereuses

“Haven't you realized that pleasure, which is indeed certainly the one and only reason for the two sexes to come together, is nevertheless not enough to establish a relationship between them? And that though this pleasure is preceded by desire which draws people together, it is however followed by aversion which pushes them apart? It's a law of nature which only love can change. Can we feel love whenever we want? Yet love is always needed, which would be a dreadfully tiresome thing if it hadn't fortunately been realized that it's enough for just one of the partners to feel it, thereby halving the problem, and without even incurring any great loss; in fact, one party is happy to love, the other to please, which is actually a bit less exciting but which can be combined with the pleasure of deceiving and that evens things out, so everyone's happy.”
― Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, Les Liaisons dangereuses

“Will you, then, never grow weary of being unjust?”
― Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, Les Liaisons dangereuses

“...she refuses all amorous alms, and such a refusal, to my view, justifies a theft.”
― Choderlos de Laclos, Les Liaisons dangereuses