16 quotes
Success, which is not always a proof of merit, depends more often on the choice of a subject than on its execution.
Les liaisons dangereuses (1782)
One hand was needed for power, the other for love: where is the orator that could aspire to grace in such a position?
Les liaisons dangereuses (1782)
The scoundrel has his good qualities, and the good man his weaknesses.
Les liaisons dangereuses (1782)
Love, like medicine, is only the art of encouraging nature.
Les liaisons dangereuses (1782)
An opportunity missed once will present itself again, whereas a too hasty action can never be recalled.
Les liaisons dangereuses (1782)
I was astonished at the pleasure to be derived from doing good.
Les liaisons dangereuses (1782)
With men, you say yourself, infidelity is not inconstancy.
Les liaisons dangereuses (1782)
One has lived long enough if one has had time to win the love of women and the esteem of men.
Les liaisons dangereuses (1782)
One's ridiculousness increases in proportion as one denies it.
Les liaisons dangereuses (1782)
One may quote bad poetry if it is by a great poet.
Les liaisons dangereuses (1782)
Luxury, nowadays, is ruinous. We criticize, but must conform, and superfluities in the end deprive us of necessities.
Les liaisons dangereuses (1782)
The shame love causes is like its pain; we only feel it once. We may feign it afterwards, but we do not feel it. However, the pleasure remains, and that is indeed something.
Les liaisons dangereuses (1782)
Man enjoys the happiness he feels, woman the happiness she gives. This difference, so essential and yet so seldom noticed, has a marked difference on the whole of their respective behaviour. A man's pleasure is to satisfy desires, a woman's is chiefly to arouse them.
Les liaisons dangereuses (1782)
Only love can make one happy.
Les liaisons dangereuses (1782)
Either you have a rival or you don't. If you have one, you must set out to please, so as to be preferred to him. If you don't have one, you must still please so as to obviate the possibility of having one.
Les liaisons dangereuses (1782)
Revenge is a dish best eaten cold.
Misattributed