Les Liaisons Dangereuses [review]
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Our intentions make blackguards of us all; our weakness in carrying them out we call probity.
Full Title:
Les Liaisons Dangereuses
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This isn't a review so much as a collection of quotes from the book that leaped out at me sufficiently to dog-ear my book (a singularly rare occurrence when it comes to me and books, I assure you). I couldn't limit myself to one or two, but here are, nonetheless, some of the choicest. Other than that, this book is delicious, scandalous eighteenth-century sex-intrigue, and may interest movie buffs to know that Cruel Intentions (of the Sarah Michelle Gellar and Ryan Phillippe fame) is based on it.
Love, like medicine, is only the art of encouraging nature.
By sheer dint of looking for good arguments, we find them and we state them; and afterwards hold by them, not because they are good ones, but because we do not wish to contradict ourselves.
[The child] is truly delicious! She has neither character nor principles: imagine how easy and agreeable her company will one day be.
You cannot imagine the tissue of unspeakable lies that diabolical shrew has fabricated around me.
Love, which we cry up as the source of our pleasures, is nothing more than an excuse for them.
To possess you and to love you is to buy a moment's happiness with an eternity of remorse.
Let us not deceive ourselves: the charm we think we find in others exists only in ourselves, and it is love alone that confers beauty on the beloved.
I may add to this review at some later date.