Pierre-Ambroise Choderlos de Laclos, Les Liaisons dangereuses

12 quotes

"You may conquer her love of God: you will never overcome her fear of the devil."

Pierre-Ambroise 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-Ambroise Choderlos de Laclos, Les Liaisons dangereuses

"Don't you remember that love, like medicine, is only the art of encouraging nature?"

Pierre-Ambroise Choderlos de Laclos, Les Liaisons dangereuses

"How characteristic of your perverse heart that longs only for what happens to be out of reach."

Pierre-Ambroise Choderlos de Laclos, Les Liaisons dangereuses

"When one woman strikes at the heart of another, she seldom misses, and the wound is invariably fatal."

Pierre-Ambroise 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-Ambroise 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-Ambroise Choderlos de Laclos, Les Liaisons dangereuses

"Will you, then, never grow weary of being unjust?"

Pierre-Ambroise 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-Ambroise Choderlos de Laclos, Les Liaisons dangereuses

"One must not permit oneself excesses, except with persons whom one wishes soon to leave."

Pierre-Ambroise Choderlos de Laclos, Les Liaisons dangereuses

"...it is not for the illusion of a moment to govern the choice of a lifetime."

Pierre-Ambroise 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."

Pierre-Ambroise Choderlos de Laclos, Les Liaisons dangereuses

"Moreover it is easier, in the informality of conversation, to achieve that excitement and incoherence which is the true eloquence of love."

Pierre-Ambroise Choderlos de Laclos, Les Liaisons dangereuses