74 Quotes by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos

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

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.

I see you are already as timid as a slave: you might as well be in love.

Marquise de Merteuil: I’ve distilled every thing to one single principle: win or die.

A man enjoys the happiness he feels, a woman the happiness she gives.

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.

Either you have a rival or you don’t. If you have one, you must please in order to be preferred to him, and if you don’t you must still please-in order to avoid having one.

You know better than I, Monsieur,′ said he, ’that to lie with a girl is only to make her do what pleases her; there is often a great distance between that and making her do what we want.

You accuse her of being ill-dressed. I agree. Clothes don’t become her. Everything that hides her, disfigures. It is in the freedom of dishabille that she is truly ravishing.