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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.