74 Quotes by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos

The arrows of love, like Achilles’ sword, carry with them the remedy for the wounds they cause.

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?

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.

You must observe, when you write to any one, it is for them, and not for yourself: you must endeavour, then, to write to please them, and not give them your thoughts.

Believe me, Vicomte, people rarely acquire the qualities they can dispense with.

Indeed, if to be in love is not to be able to live without possessing that person one desires, to sacrifice to her one’s time, one’s pleasures, one’s life, then I am really in love.

It is very easy for you to say what I ought to do, there is nothing to prevent you; but if you had felt how much it hurts to see the grief of a person one loves, how his joy becomes yours, and how difficult it is to say No when you want to say Yes, you would not be surprised at anything; I felt it myself, I felt it very keenly, I do not yet understand it.

Cast between the extremes of happiness and misfortune, uncertainty is a cruel torment.

Once certain of arriving, why hurry on the journey so fast?