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 n….

Either you have a rival or you don't. If you have one, you must please in order to be preferred to him, and if you don't you must still please-in ord….

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

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 delig….

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

Revenge is a dish that is best served cold..

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

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..

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

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

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..

I assure you that the world is not so amusing as we imagined..

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 hi….

La vengeance est un plat qui se mange froid.

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

You may conquer her love of God: you will never overcome her fear of the devil..

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 ….

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 ….

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

Marquise de Merteuil: I've distilled every thing to one single principle: win or die..

All publicity is good publicity..