Liaison Dangereuse Quotes

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

Your orders are charming; your manner of giving them still more delightful; you would make tyranny itself adored.

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.

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.

C'est de l'amour, ou il n'en exista jamais: vous le niez bien de cent façons: mais vous le prouvez de mille.

Like most intellectuals he is intensely stupid.

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.

They have neither thought nor being, and merely repeat indifferently and uncomprehendingly everything they hear, retaining within themselves an absolute void.

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.

I perceive your lovers purely as the successors of Alexander the Great, incompetent joint rulers of an empire where I once ruled supreme.

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.

J'ai bien besoin d'avoir cette femme, pour me sauver du ridicule d'en être amoureux:

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

...she refuses all amorous alms, and such a refusal, to my view, justifies a theft.

Contrary to conventional wisdom, opportunity always knocks more than once whereas a false step can never be retraced.

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.

Ces tyrans détrônés devenus mes esclaves.

born to avenge my sex and to dominate yours

Who can wish for happiness that is bought at the price of reason, whose fleeting pleasures are at least followed by regret, if not remorse?

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

...the real way of vanquishing scruples is to leave those who have them nothing to lose.

If, for example, I had just as much love as you had virtue (and that is surely saying a lot) it is not astonishing that one should end at the same time as the other. It is not my fault.

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.

Never to my mind had she looked more beautiful. Inevitably so. A woman reaches the height of her beauty – and only at this time can she inspire that intoxication of the soul which is so often talked of and so rarely experienced – when we are sure of her love, but not of her favours.

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.

Certainly she must surrender but she must offer resistance; an opponent too weak to win but not too weak to put up a struggle.

To punish you for your suspicions, I shall leave you to live with them: I shan’t tell you anything at all.

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

From that moment on my thoughts were purely for my own benefit, and I revealed only what I found it useful to reveal.

I need only to be shown my mistakes and I never rest until I have retrieved them.

One should only permit excess with those one intends to leave soon.

I had to flatter them the whole evening to appease them; for old women must not be angered - they make young women's reputations.

Do men ever appreciate the women they possess?

Madame de Merteuil, though indeed a woman highly regarded, has perhaps only one fault: she overestimates her ability; she's a skilful driver who enjoys guiding her chariot between rocks and precipices and whose sole justification is that she remains unscathed. We can certainly praise but it would be unwise to follow her; she agrees with that view and condemns herself for it.

I have kept my reputation untarnished; should you not therefore have concluded that I, who was born to revenge my sex and master yours, have been able to discover methods of doing so unknown even to myself?

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.

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.

J'ai vécu

إنّنا نجد أنّ ما نسميه السعادة لا يكاد يكون سوى اللذة.

Je sais assez, quoi qu'on en dise, qu'une occasion manquée se retrouve, tandis qu'on ne revient jamais d'une démarche précipitée.

When I felt annoyed I practiced looking serene, even cheerful; in my enthusiasm I went so far as to suffer pain voluntarily so as to achieve a simultaneous expression of pleasure.

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

Good-bye, my fair friend; beware of the amusing or capricious ideas which always seduce you too easily. Remember that in the career you are following, intelligence is not enough and that a single imprudence may become an irreparable misfortune. And finally sometime allow prudent friendship to guide your pleasures. Good-bye, I still love you as much as if you were reasonable.

İnsan ne tam anlamıyla kötü ne de tam anlamıyla iyidir. Ahlaklı insanların bazı zayıflıkları, ahlaksızların da iyi yanları vardır. Bu düşünceyi kesin kabul etmemiz gerekir, çünkü ancak böyle bir düşünceyle hem iyilere hem de kötülere karşı insaf ve merhamet duyguları içinde oluruz. İyileri kibirden, kötüleri kederden kurtaran gene bu düşüncedir.

opportunity always knocks more than once whereas a false step can never be retraced.

...but where shall happiness be found if a reciprocal love does not procure it?

Fools are here below for our minor pleasures.

Have you forgotten that love, like medicine, is simply the art of aiding nature?

The wicked man has his virtues, the good man his weaknesses

So many women do not see in their present lover their future enemy

L'amour est un sentiment indépendant, que la prudence peut faire éviter, mais qu'elle ne saurait vaincre ; et qui, une fois né, ne meurt que de sa belle mort, ou du défaut absolu d'espoir.

En effet, si les premiers amours paraissent, en général, plus honnêtes, et comme on dit plus purs ; s'ils sont au moins plus lents dans leur marche, ce n'est pas, comme on le pense, délicatesse ou timidité, c'est que le cœur, étonné par un sentiment inconnu, s'arrête pour ainsi dire à chaque pas, pour jouir du charme qu'il éprouve, et que ce charme est si puissant sur un cœur neuf, qu'il l'occupe au point de lui faire oublier tout autre plaisir.

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.

Ah ! qu'elle se rende, mais qu'elle combatte ; que, sans avoir la force de vaincre, elle ait celle de résister ; qu'elle savoure à loisir le sentiment de sa faiblesse, et soit contrainte d'avouer sa défaite.

There isn't a woman who doesn't love the Perfect Man; In their wild dreams they see nothing but charms and virtues and gleefully deck out the men of their choice in all these qualities; but these glittering robes fit for a God often drape an abject model; but whatever he is, no sooner have they dressed him up than, dazzled by their own handiwork, they prostrate themselves to adore him.

Yet I cannot believe that this talisman of love has lost all its power and I still attempt to use it. - Those who have never had occasion to feel sometimes the value of a word, of an expression, consecrated by love will find no sense in this phrase. (C. de L.)

Only pleasure has the right to untie the love from one’s eyes

You'll find the pain is like the shame, you only feel it once.

How fortunate we are that women are so bad at defending themselves, otherwise we’d become their abject slaves!

Ce sentiment est−il donc le seul que vous puissiez connaître, et l'amour aura−t−il ce tort de plus à mes yeux, d'exclure l'amitié ?

Ah ! croyez-moi, Vicomte, quand une femme frappe dans le cœur d'une autre, elle manque rarement de trouver l'endroit sensible, et la blessure est incurable.

Dès ce moment, le doux espoir a remplacé la cruelle inquiétude. J'aurai cette femme, je l'enlèverai au mari qui la profane, j'oserai la ravir au Dieu même qu'elle adore.

Ces mots tracés au crayon s’effaceront peut-être, mais jamais les sentiments gravés dans mon cœur.

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

This charm we find in other people is all in the mind; it's only love which makes the loved one appear so wonderful.

Wanting to pay love with friendship is not to be afraid of ingratitude, but to be afraid of looking ungrateful.

God, aren't brainy people obtuse!

Oh yes, certainly her daughter must be seduced. But that will not be enough: she must be ruined too.

Love, hatred, you have only to choose: it is all there with you under the same roof. You can enjoy life, caressing with one hand and killing with the other.

On s’ennuie de tout, mon Ange, c’est une Loi de la Nature ; ce n’est pas ma faute.

Believe me, Vicomte, when a woman has become so encrusted with prejudice, she is best left to her fate. She will never be anything better than a nobody.

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.

Vous posséder et vous perdre, c’est acheter un moment de bonheur par une éternité de regrets.

A man enjoys the pleasure he feels, a woman the pleasure she bestows.

Indeed, if first loves appear in general more virtuous and, as they say, more chaste; if they are at least slower in their progress; it is not, as people think, from delicacy or timidity, but because the heart, surprised by an unknown sentiment, hesitates as it were at every step to enjoy the charm it feels, and because this charm is so powerful upon a fresh heart that it forgets every other pleasure.

[Prévan] accordingly sought out these paragons of perfection. He was readily received into their society, and he took this for a favourable omen. He knew well enough that happy people are not so easy of access.

Encore plus faux et dangereux qu’il n’est aimable et séduisant, jamais, depuis sa plus grande jeunesse, il n’a fait un pas ou dit une parole sans avoir un projet, et jamais il n’eut un projet qui ne fût malhonnête ou criminel.

Combattant sans risque, vous devez agir sans précaution. Pour vous autres hommes, les défaites ne sont que des succès de moins. Dans cette partie si inégale, notre fortune est de ne pas perdre, et votre malheur de ne pas gagner.

Serait-ce un crime d’avoir su apprécier votre charmante figure, vos talents séducteurs, vos grâces enchanteresses, et cette touchante candeur qui ajoute un prix inestimable à des qualités déjà si précieuses ? non, sans doute : mais, sans être coupable, on peut être malheureux ; et c’est le sort qui m’attend, si vous refusez d’agréer mon hommage.

Narcissism is, in a sense, the converse of an habitual sense of sin; it consists in the habit of admiring oneself and wishing to be admired. Up to a point it is, of course, normal, and not to be deplored; it is only in its excesses that it becomes a grave evil. In many women, especially rich Society women, the capacity for feeling love is completely dried up, and is replaced by a powerful desire that all men should love them. When a woman of this kind is sure that a man loves her, she has no further use for him. The same thing occurs, though less frequently, with men; the classic example is the hero of Liaisons Dangereuses. When vanity is carried to this height, there is no genuine interest in any other person, and therefore no real satisfaction to be obtained from love.

Mais moi, qu'ai-je de commun avec ces femmes inconsidérées ? Quand m'avez-vous vue m'écarter des règles que je me suis prescrites, et manquer à mes principes ? Je dis mes principes, et je le dis à dessein : car ils ne sont pas, comme ceux des autres femmes, donnés au hasard, reçus sans examen et suivis par habitude ; ils sont le fruit de mes profondes réflexions ; je les ai crées, et je puis dire que je suis mon ouvrage.

*Take my advice, do like me and get yourself another lover. This is good advice, in fact it's very good advice: if you don't like it, it's not my fault.* *Farewell my angel. I've enjoyed having you and I've no regrets leaving you. I may come back to you. That's the way of the world. It's not my fault.*

There is no longer any happiness for me, no longer any peace but in the possession of this woman whom I love and hate with equal fury. I cannot tolerate my life until hers is again mine to dispose of. Then, contented and calm, I shall see her in turn buffeted by the storms that assail me now, and I shall stir up a thousand others too. I want hope and fear, faith and suspicion, all the evils devised by hate and all the blessings conferred by love, to fill her heart and to succeed one another there at my will.

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.

N’avez-vous pas dû en conclure que, née pour venger mon sexe & maîtriser le vôtre, j’avais su me créer des moyens inconnus jusqu’à moi?

Me voilà comme la Divinité; recevant les vœux opposés des aveugles mortels, et ne changeant rien à mes décrets immuables. – La Marquise de Merteuil

Me voilà comme la Divinité; recevant les vœux opposés des aveugles mortels, et ne changeant rien à mes décrets immuables.

quite

Ces Tyrans détrônés devenus mes esclaves

Par bonheur je me ressouvins que pour subjuguer une femme tout moyen était également bon;

si on était éclairé sur son véritable bonheur, on ne le chercherait jamais hors des bornes prescrites par les Lois et la Religion.

You reproach her with dressing badly; I quite agree: all adornment is hurtful to her, nothing that conceals her adorns

It's beyond my control.

Czy nie wiesz, że jedynie rozkosz ma prawo zdejmować z oczu przepaskę miłości?

In that debased society love is viewed as a failing, a weakness, and something to be avoided at all costs.

You make despotism itself seem something to be cherished

The god of love himself, preparing my crown, cannot decide between the myrtle and the laurel, or rather he will weave them together to honor my triumph

She does not suspect what divinity it is I adore

You know how keen my desire is, how I thrive on obstacles; but what you do not know is how greatly solitude adds to the ardour of desire.

What astonishing sensitivity must she have to extend those feelings even to her husband, and carry on loving a person who is never even there?

The word ‘love’ has not yet been uttered, but we already talk about confidence and interest.

… her heart had palpitated with love and not with fear

I have got into the habit of not thinking about it, and I am finding this life rather to my liking.

I shall not stop to count all the women he has seduced; but how many of them has he not ruined?

… though we may not remedy the evil, let us make sure it does not happen to us

… it is evident that it is this unfortunate passion that is tormenting her

… it is all dialogue and no action, so contain your soul in patience.

I know how impatient love is

Your unhappiness has touched me so deeply that I shall do everything possible go alleviate it

… in those looks from which there fliwed a poison so much more dangerous in that it was poured forth without intent and received without kistrust.

… manifesting that precious sensibility which enhances beauty itself and makes virtue truly worthy, in leading astray a heart already intoxicated by too much love.

et puis, qu’on dise que l’amour rend ingénieux ! il abrutit au contraire ceux qu’il domine.

ce charme qu’on croit trouver dans les autres, c’est en nous qu’il existe ; et c’est l’amour seul qui embellit tant l’objet aimé.

Un sultan peut le ressentir pour sa sultane favorite, ce qui ne l’empêche pas de lui préférer souvent une simple odalisque.

Quand j’ai à me plaindre de quelqu’un, je ne le persifle pas ; je fais mieux : je me venge.

M. de Valmont paraît aimer à citer J.-J. Rousseau, et toujours en le profanant par l’abus qu’il en fait.

Siamo sinceri: noi nei nostri rapporti, tanto freddi quanto facili, chiamiamo felicità ciò che appena merita il nome di piacere.

On s'ennuie de tout, mon ange. C'est une loi de la nature, ce n'est pas ma faute.

Didn’t you know that it’s not until after enjoying its delights that Love can stop being blind.

Pourquoi faut-il que ces projets charmants ne soient qu'un chimère de mon imagination, que la réalité ne m'offre au contraire que des privations douloureuses et indéfinies ?

À force de chercher de bonnes raisons, on en trouve ; on les dit ; et après on y tient, non pas tant parce qu'elles sont bonnes que pour ne pas se démentir.

O senhor sabe, por certo, melhor do que eu que dormir com uma mulher é apenas levá-la a fazer o que lhe agrada; daí a levá-la a fazer o que queremos vai às vezes um grande passo.

Zločinac ima vrlina kao što čestit čovjek ima mana.

Mes souffrances me sont chères ; elles me prouveront l’excès de mon amour.

Vous feignez de craindre l’amour, et vous ne voulez pas voir que vous seule causez les maux que vous lui reprochez.

Ah ! sans doute, ce sentiment est pénible, quand l’objet qui l’inspire ne le partage point ; mais où trouver le bonheur, si un amour réciproque ne le procure pas ?

Mais l’amour, ah ! l’amour !... un mot, un regard, un sentiment de le savoir là, eh bien ! c’est le bonheur.

Pour calculer mes maux, il faudrait savoir à quel point je vous aime, et vous ne connaissez pas mon cœur.

Ah ! si Magdaleine était ainsi, elle dut être bien plus dangereuse pénitente que pécheresse.

I have looked into my own heart, I have studied in it the heart of others.

The more you deny being a fool, the bigger fool you look

Ou vous avez un rival, ou vous n'en avez pas. Si vous en avez un, il faut plaire pour lui être préféré; si vous n'en avez pas, il faut encore plaire pour éviter d'en avoir.

Comme s’il était bien gênant de promettre, quand on est décidé à ne pas tenir !

On y parla de vous, et j’en dis, non pas tout le bien que j’en pense, mais tout celui que je n’en pense pas.

Ce sont ces petits détails qui donnent la vraisemblance, et la vraisemblance rend les mensonges sans conséquence, en ôtant le désir de les vérifier.

Pour ce qu’on fait d’un mari, l’un vaut toujours bien l’autre ; et le plus incommode est encore moins gênant qu’une mère.

C’est que vous dîtes tout ce que vous pensez, et rien de ce que vous ne pensez pas.

Quand vous écrivez à quelqu’un, c’est pour lui et non pas pour vous : vous devez donc moins chercher à lui dire ce que vous pensez, que ce qui lui plaît davantage.

Il faut vaincre ou périr.

Будем же откровенны: в наших связях, столь же холодных, сколь и мимолетных, то, что мы именуем счастьем, — всего лишь удовольствие.

Излишества можно позволять себе лишь с теми, кого собираешься вскоре бросить.

О, нестерпимая гордыня, заставляющая нас находить облегчение своих страданий в тех страданиях, которые мы причиняем другим!

В горе есть некая черта, за которой даже дружба лишь усиливает наши страдания и не может их исцелить. Когда раны смертельны, всякая попытка лечить их бесчеловечна.

Но как можно быть виновной перед тем, перед кем не имеешь вообще никаких обязательств?

Je suis bien malheureux. J’ai voulu vivre pour votre bonheur, et je l’ai troublé. Je me dévoue pour votre tranquillité, et je la trouble encore.

Oh ! qu’est-ce donc que l’amour, s’il nous fait regretter jusqu’aux dangers auxquels il nous expose.

Fuyons cette passion funeste, qui ne laisse de choix qu’entre la honte et le malheur, et souvent même les réunit tous deux.

A letter is the portrait of the soul.

Le luxe absorbe tout : on le blâme, mais il faut l'imiter ; et le superflu finit par priver du nécessaire.

…Tender sympathy which is one of the most dangerous snares of love

Any piddling poacher can lie in wait for a stag and shoot it unawares; the true sportsman brings it to bay.

It's the little details that make for plausibility and plausibility makes fibs immaterial because nobody feels the need to check them.

Men enjoy the happiness they feel. We can only enjoy the happiness we give.

Je ne me rappelle jamais sans plaisir le temps où vous m'honoriez de noms plus doux. Souvent même je désire de les mériter de nouveau, et de finir par donner, avec vous, un exemple de constance au monde. Mais de plus grands intérêts nous appellent ; conquérir est notre destin ; il faut le suivre : peut-être au bout de la carrière nous rencontrerons-nous encore.

Będę miał tę kobietę; odbiorę ją mężowi, który nie jest jej godzien, ośmielę się ją wydrzeć nawet Bogu, którego uwielbia. Cóż za rozkosz być kolejno powodem i zwycięzcą jej wyrzutów!

C’est en vous voyant que je me suis éclairé : bientôt j’ai reconnu que le charme de l’amour tenait aux qualités de l’âme ; qu’elles seules pouvaient en causer l’excès, et le justifier.

Love is an independent spirit; being cautious may help us to avoid it but can never enable us to overcome it; once it's born, it can only die of natural causes or complete hopelessness.

L’amour est un sentiment indépendant, que la prudence peut faire éviter, mais qu’elle ne saurait vaincre ; et qui, une fois né ne meurt que de sa belle mort ou du défaut absolu d’espoir.

Vous croyez, Monsieur, ou vous feignez de croire que l’amour mène au bonheur ; et moi, je suis si persuadée qu’il me rendrait malheureuse que je voudrais n’entendre jamais prononcer son nom.

Men can only judge thoughts by actions; and none of them, having lost the esteem of others, has the right to complain of the necessary mistrust, which makes that loss so difficult to repair.

Femme adorable, vous n’avez pas idée de l’amour que vous inspirez ; vous ne saurez jamais jusqu’à quel point vous fûtes adorée, et de combien ce sentiment m’était plus cher que mon existence.

You may be able to conquer her love of God but you will not overcome her fear of the Devil; and when you hold your mistress in your arms and feel her hear beating, it will be in fear, not love

I was still young and not very interesting; but my thoughts were the only things that belonged to me and I felt indignant that someone might snatch them from me or detect them against my will.

La honte que cause l'amour est comme sa douleur : on ne l'éprouve qu'une fois. On peut encore la feindre après ; mais on ne la sent plus. Cependant le plaisir reste, et c'est bien quelque chose.

We embarked on that tacit convention, the first article in the treaty of coy love, which satisfies a mutual desire to look at each other by allowing glances to alternate until they eventually meet.

J’ai enfin déraisonné le plus qu’il m’a été possible : car sans déraisonnement, point de tendresse ; et c’est, je crois, par cette raison que les femmes nous sont si supérieures dans les Lettres d’Amour.

L’homme jouit du bonheur qu’il ressent, et la femme de celui qu’elle procure. Cette différence, si essentielle et si peu remarquée, influe pourtant, d’une manière bien sensible, sur la totalité de leur conduite respective. Le plaisir de l’un est de satisfaire ses désirs, celui de l’autre est surtout de les faire naître. Plaire, n’est pour lui qu’un moyen de succès ; tandis que pour elle, c’est le succès lui-même.

I’m sure your lordship knows better than me,’ he said, ‘that going to bed with a girl only means getting her to do something she wants to do, but from that to getting her to do what me want is often quite another story.

On ne pouvait prendre un plus mauvais prétexte : mais nulle femme n’a mieux que la Vicomtesse ce talent, commun à toutes, de mettre l’humeur à la place de la raison, et de n’être jamais si difficile à apaiser que quand elle a tort.

J’aurai cette femme; je l’enlèverai au mari qui la profane; j’oserai la ravir au Dieu même qu’elle adore. Quel délice d’être tour à tour l’objet et le vainqueur de ses remords! Loin de moi l’idée de détruire les préjugés qui l’affligent! ils ajouteront à mon bonheur et à ma gloire. Qu’elle croie à la vertu, mais qu’elle me la sacrifie; que ses fautes l’épouvantent sans pouvoir l’arrêter, et qu’agitée de mille terreurs elle ne puisse les oublier, les vaincre que dans mes bras.

Je joins à cette Lettre celle que vous m'avez écrite, et j'espère que vous voudrez bien de même me remettre celle-ci; je serais vraiment peinée qu'il restât aucune trace d'un événement qui n'eût jamais dû exister. J'ai l'honneur d'être, etc.

C'est de quarante à cinquante ans que le désespoir de voir leur figure se flétrir, la rage de se sentir obligées d'abandonner des prétentions et des plaisirs auxquels elles tiennent encore, rendent presque toutes les femmes bégueules et acariâtres.

N'avez-vous pas encore remarqué que le plaisir, qui est bien en effet l'unique mobile de la réunion des deux sexes, ne suffit pourtant pas pour former une liaison entre eux ? et que, s'il est précédé du désir qui rapproche, il n'est pas moins suivi du dégoût qui repousse ?

Жестоко пугать безнадежного больного, которому нужны только утешения да болеутоляющие средства; но полезно просветить выздоравливающего насчет опасности, которой он подвергался, чтобы внушить ему необходимое благоразумие и готовность подчиниться советам, которые могут ему еще понадобиться.

Dites seulement un mot, et vous verrez si tous les charmes et tous les attachements me retiendront ici, non pas un jour, mais une minute. Je volerai à vos pieds et dans vos bras, et je vous prouverai mille fois et de milles manières, que vous êtes, que vous serez toujours, la véritable souveraine de mon cœur.

Je sentis que le seul homme avec qui je pouvais parler sur cet objet, sans me compromettre, était mon Contesseur. Aussitôt je pris mon parti; je surmontai ma petite honte; et me vantant d'une faute que je n'avais pas commise, je m'accusai d'avoir fait tout ce que font les femmes. Ce fut mon expression; mais en parlant ainsi je ne savais en vérité quelle idée j'exprimais. Mon espoir ne fut ni tout à fait trompé, ni entièrement rempli; la crainte de me trahir m'empêchait de m'éclairer : mais le bon Père me fit le mal si grand que j'en conclus que le plaisir devait être extrême; et au désir de le connaitre succéda celui de le goûter.

de l’amour bien pur ni bien tendre, mais de celui que vous pouvez avoir ; de celui, par exemple, qui fait trouver à une femme les agréments ou les qualités qu’elle n’a pas ; qui la place dans une classe à part, et met toutes les autres en second ordre ; qui vous tient encore attaché à elle, même alors que vous l’outragez

There's nothing harder than writing something you don't really feel, I mean doing it convincingly; it's not that you don't use the proper words but they're not arranged in the proper way or rather, they obviously are arranged and that's quite enough ... Talking is quite different. With practice, you can make your voice tremble with emotion and that can be enhanced by a few well-placed tears; eyes can express a blend of tenderness and desire; and finally, a few broken words help to reinforce the air of bewilderment and agitation which is the most eloquent proof of love. Above all, the presence of our lover prevents women from thinking and makes us want to surrender.

I supplemented these with the help of reading: but do not imagine it was all of the kind you suppose. I studied our manners in novels, our opinions in the philosophers; I even went to the most severe moralists to see what they expected from us; and I thus made sure of what one could do, of what one ought to think, and of how one must appear.

If you regard women as people endowed with certain inalienable rights, then heterosexual sex -- as distinct from rape -- has to be something two people do together because both of them want to, but this notion of women as people is apparently baffling or objectionable to hordes of men, not just incels. Women-as-bodies are sex waiting to happen -- to men -- and women-as-people are annoying gatekeepers getting between men and female bodies, which is why there's a ton of advice about how to trick or overwhelm the gatekeeper. Not just on incel and pick-up artist online forums but as jokey stuff in movies and books, going back to Les Liaisons Dangereuses and Casanova's trophy-taking.

Yes, Viscount, you loved Madame de Tourvel much, and you still love her; you love her to distraction: but because I made you ashamed, by way of amusement, you nobly sacrifice her. You would have sacrificed a thousand women rather than be laughed at. To what lengths will not vanity lead us! The wise man was right when he said it was the foe to happiness.

When have you seen me depart from the rules I have laid down to myself, and abandon my own principles? I say, my own principles, and I speak it with energy, for they are not like those of other women, dealt out by chance, received without scrutiny, and followed through custom; they are the proofs of my profound reflections; I have given them existence, and I can call them my own work. Introduced into the world whilst yet a girl, I was devoted by my situation to silence and inaction; this time I made use of for reflection and observation. Looked upon as thoughtless and heedless, paying little attention to the discourses that were held out to me, I carefully laid up those that were meant to be concealed from me.

Род человеческий не совершенен ни в чем — ни в дурном, ни в хорошем. Негодяй может иметь свои достоинства, как и честный человек — свои слабости. Мне представляется, что считать это истиной тем более важно, что именно отсюда вытекает необходимость снисхождения к злым так же, как и к добрым, и что истина эта одних предохраняет от гордыни, а других — от отчаяния.

My dear Viscount, you certainly deceive yourself in the sentiment that attaches you to M. de Tourvel. It is love, or such a passion never had existence. You deny it in a hundred shapes; but you prove it in a thousand. What means, for example, the subterfuge you use against yourself, for I believe you sincere with me, that makes you relate so circumstantially the desire you can neither conceal nor combat, of keeping this woman? Would not one imagine, you never had made any other happy, perfectly happy? [...] It is no longer the adorable, the celestial Madame de Tourvel, but an astonishing woman, a delicate sentimental woman, even to the exclusion of all others; a wonderful woman, such as a second could not be found. The same way with your unknown charm, which is not the strongest. Well; be it so: but since you never found it out till then, it is much to be apprehended you will never meet it again; the loss would be irreparable. Those, Viscount, are sure symptoms of love, or we must renounce the hope of ever finding it.

Her face… is without expression. But what should it express in the moments when nothing speaks to her heart? … she does not have… that falseness which sometimes seduces, but invariably deceives. She does not know how to disguise an empty phrase with a studied smile… Though she has the most beautiful teeth in the world, she only laughs at what she finds truly amusing… You should see what a picture of naive … gaiety she sees when we play games; her look of pure joy, goodness and compassion when she is near some poor wretch she is anxious to help

Mon ami, vous m'avez facilement appris à ne vivre que pour vous ; apprenez-moi maintenant à vivre loin de vous... Non, ce n'est pas là ce que je veux dire, c'est plutôt que, loin de vous, je voudrais ne point vivre, ou au moins oublier mon existence. Abandonnée à moi-même, je ne puis supporter ni mon bonheur, ni ma peine; je sens le besoin du repos, et tout repos m'est impossible; j'ai vainement appelé le sommeil, le sommeil a fui de moi; je ne puis ni m'occuper ni rester oisive; tour-à-tour un feu brûlant me dévore, un frisson mortel m'anéantit: tout mouvement me fatigue et je ne saurais rester en place. Enfin ! que dirai-je ? je souffrirais moins dans l'ardeur de la plus violente fièvre, et, sans que je puisse ni l'expliquer ni le concevoir, je sens très bien pourtant que cet état de souffrance ne vient que de mon impuissance à contenir ou diriger une foule de sentiments au charme desquels cependant je me trouverais heureuse de pouvoir livrer mon âme toute entière.

L’homme jouit du bonheur qu’il ressent, et la femme de celui qu’elle procure. Cette différence, si essentielle et si peu remarquée, influe pourtant, d’une manière bien sensible, sur la totalité de leur conduite respective. Le plaisir de l’un est de satisfaire ses désirs, celui de l’autre est surtout de les faire naître. Plaire, n’est pour lui qu’un moyen de succès ; tandis que pour elle, c’est le succès lui-même. Et la coquetterie, si souvent reprochée aux femmes, n’est autre chose que l’abus de cette façon de sentir, et par là même en prouve la vérité. Enfin ce goût exclusif, qui caractérise particulièrement l’amour, n’est dans l’homme qu’une préférence, qui sert, au plus, à graduer un plaisir, qu’un autre objet affaiblirait peut-être, mais ne détruirait pas ; tandis que dans les femmes, c’est un sentiment profond, qui non seulement anéantit tout désir étranger, mais qui, plus fort que la nature, et soustrait à son empire, ne leur laisse éprouver que répugnance et dégoût, là-même où semble devoir naître la volupté.