Quotes By Person: Pierre Choderlos de Laclos

“I'm sorry to say this but those who are most worthy of love are never made happy by it. Do you still think men love the way we do? No... men enjoy the happiness they feel. We can only enjoy the happiness we give. They are not capable of devoting themselves exclusively to one person. So to hope to be made happy by love is a certain cause of grief.”

-Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Pierre Choderlos de Laclos

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“Well I had no choice, did I? I'm a woman. Women are obliged to be far more skillful than men. You can ruin our reputation and our life with a few well-chosen words. So of course I had to invent not only myself but ways of escape no one has every thought of before. And I've succeeded because I've always known I was born to dominate your sex and avenge my own.”

-Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Pierre Choderlos de Laclos

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“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 learn 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 novelists to see what I could get away with, and in the end it all came down to one wonderfully simple principle: win or die.”

-Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Pierre Choderlos de Laclos

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

-Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Pierre Choderlos de Laclos

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