Top 80 Pierre Choderlos de Laclos Quotes (2025 Update)
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51. “My thoughts were my own, and I was exasperated to have them either surprised or drawn from me against my will.”

— Pierre Choderlos de Laclos

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

— Pierre Choderlos de Laclos

53. “Our intentions make blackguards of us all; our weakness in carrying them out we call probity.”

— Pierre Choderlos de Laclos

54. “They replace the seducing charms with attractive goodness and cheerfulness, whose charms increase with their years.”

— Pierre Choderlos de Laclos

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

— Pierre Choderlos de Laclos

56. “He would elevate you to the first rank among the modish women; that is the way to gain consistency in life, and not sit blushing and crying as if your nuns had made you eat your dinner on your knees.”

— Pierre Choderlos de Laclos

57. “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.”

— Pierre Choderlos de Laclos

58. “Your portrait have I said? but a letter is the portrait of the soul; it has not, like a cold image, that degree of stagnation so opposite to love; it yields to all our actions by turns; it becomes animated, gives us enjoyment, and sinks into repose – All your sentiments are precious to me; and will you deprive me of the means of becoming possessed of them?”

— Pierre Choderlos de Laclos

59. “Yes, of course it is a sad emotion when it is not shared by the person inspiring it; but where is happiness to be found if not in mutual love? Cordial friendship, gentle trust – the only trust which knows no limits – sorrows soothed and pleasure enhanced, the charm of hope and of remembrance: where else can you find all these but in love?”

— Pierre Choderlos de Laclos

60. “What woman of honour, besides, would resolve on doing what she knows she will be obliged to conceal?”

— Pierre Choderlos de Laclos

61. “Our reason, inadequate as it is to warn us of impending disasters, is even more inadequate to offer us any comfort for them.”

— Pierre Choderlos de Laclos

62. “It was then I was ascertained that love, which is represented as the first cause of all our pleasure, is at most but the pretence.”

— Pierre Choderlos de Laclos

63. “Without doubt a letter appears very unnecessary when we can see one another freely – What could it say that a word, or look, or even silence itself, could not express?”

— Pierre Choderlos de Laclos

64. “The more you deny being a fool, the bigger fool you look.”

— Pierre Choderlos de Laclos

65. “The profligate wretch has his virtues as well as the virtuous man his weaknesses.”

— Pierre Choderlos de Laclos

66. “God, aren’t brainy people obtuse!”

— Pierre Choderlos de Laclos

67. “Let her believe in virtue, but let her sacrifice it for my sake;.”

— Pierre Choderlos de Laclos

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

— Pierre Choderlos de Laclos

69. “Valmont is quite another matter: difficult to keep, and dangerous to leave. He demands great skill, or, if you have none, great tractability.”

— Pierre Choderlos de Laclos

70. “A letter is the portrait of the soul.”

— Pierre Choderlos de Laclos

71. “You must be careful not to vex old ladies: they’re the ones who decide young women’s reputations.”

— Pierre Choderlos de Laclos

72. “What can I say? – I love, – yes, I love to distraction!”

— Pierre Choderlos de Laclos

73. “I soon discovered that that enchanting form, which alone had raised my admiration, was the smallest of your attractions; your celestial soul astonished and seduced mine; I admired your beauty, but adored your virtue.”

— Pierre Choderlos de Laclos

74. “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.”

— Pierre Choderlos de Laclos

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

— Pierre Choderlos de Laclos

76. “If they do not see me at work, they shall at least see my work completed; they will then have nothing to do but to admire and applaud: for they shall applaud.”

— Pierre Choderlos de Laclos

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

— Pierre Choderlos de Laclos

78. “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.”

— Pierre Choderlos de Laclos

79. “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.”

— Pierre Choderlos de Laclos

80. “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.”

— Pierre Choderlos de Laclos

81. “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.”

— Pierre Choderlos de Laclos

82. “Moreover, a remark I am astonished you have not made, is, that nothing is so difficult in love, as to write what one does not feel.”

— Pierre Choderlos de Laclos

83. “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.”

— Pierre Choderlos de Laclos

84. “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.”

— Pierre Choderlos de Laclos

85. “At length the day arrived which gave birth to my misfortune;.”

— Pierre Choderlos de Laclos

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

— Pierre Choderlos de Laclos