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Pierre Choderlos de Laclos

Pierre Choderlos de Laclos Books

Novelist

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“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.”

LovePleasureSilly Women
Book:Les Liaisons Dangereuses
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“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.”

PleasureSeduction
Book:Les Liaisons Dangereuses
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“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.”

LoveDesireIn Love
Book:Les Liaisons Dangereuses
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“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.”

Seduction
Book:Les Liaisons Dangereuses
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“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.”

PossessionSeductionValmont
Book:Les Liaisons Dangereuses
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“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.”

MindBelieveMayIdeasTurnsFallForgetVirtueSacrificeObjectsArmsThousandHusbandPrejudiceAddTerrorDelightDareStealingTriumphAdoreRemorsePreventingProfaneVanquish
Author:Pierre Choderlos de Laclos
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