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

“Je sentis que le seul homme avec qui je pouvais parler sur cet objet, sans me compromettre, était mon Contesseur. Aussitôt je pris mon parti; je surmontai ma petite honte; et me vantant d'une faute que je n'avais pas commise, je m'accusai d'avoir fait tout ce que font les femmes. Ce fut mon expression; mais en parlant ainsi je ne savais en vérité quelle idée j'exprimais. Mon espoir ne fut ni tout à fait trompé, ni entièrement rempli; la crainte de me trahir m'empêchait de m'éclairer : mais le bon Père me fit le mal si grand que j'en conclus que le plaisir devait être extrême; et au désir de le connaitre succéda celui de le goûter.”

“If, for example, I had just as much love as you had virtue (and that is surely saying a lot) it is not astonishing that one should end at the same time as the other. It is not my fault.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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 not be driven by thwarted desire?”

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