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.

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

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.

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.

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