Ninon De L'Enclos Quotes

The passions do not die out; they burn out.

It is strange that modesty is the rule for women when what they most value in men is boldness.

Today a new sun rises for me; everything lives, everything is animated, everything seems to speak to me of my passion, everything invites me to cherish it.

After the age of eighty, all contemporaries are friends.

It requires infinitely a greater genius to make love, than to make war.

When our desires are fulfilled, we never fail to realize the wealth of imagination and the paucity of reality.

The resistance of a woman is not always a proof of her virtue, but more frequently of her experience.

A cunning woman is her own mistress because she confides in no one. She who deceives others anticipates deceit, and guards herself.

I hold those wise who know how to be happy.

Old age is a woman's hell.

Feminine virtue is nothing but a convenient masculine invention.

Memory is ever active, ever true. Alas, if it were only as easy to forget!

Ennui, the parent of expensive and ruinous vices.

Actors ought to be larger than life. You come across quite enough ordinary, nondescript people in daily life and I don't see why you should be subjected to them on the stage too.

The more sins you confess, the more books you will sell.

If a man needs a religion to conduct himself properly in this world, it is a sign that he has either a limited mind or a corrupt heart.

What is death, after all? We leave only mortals behind us.

Shall I tell you what makes love so dangerous? 'Tis the too high idea we are apt to form of it.

Never tell a loved one of an infidelity: you would be badly rewarded for your troubles. Although one dislikes being deceived, one likes even less to be undeceived.

Equality is the share of every one at their advent upon earth, and equality is also theirs when placed beneath it.

The mind has great advantages over the body; however the body often furnishes little treats ... which offer the mind relief from sad thoughts.

Reserve delicacy of sentiment for friendship; accept love for what it is.... The more dignity you give it, the more dangerous you make it.

One must choose between loving women and knowing them.

Gentleness! more powerful than Hercules.

The secret known to two is no longer a secret.

That which is striking and beautiful is not always good, but that which is good is always beautiful.

Novelty is the storehouse of pleasure.

A man is given the choice between loving women and understanding them.

Words really flattering are not those which we prepare but those which escape us unthinkingly.

A sensible woman should be guided by her head when taking a husband, and by her heart when taking a lover.

We should lay in a store of food, but never of pleasures; these should be gathered day by day.

Who has not raised a tombstone, here and there, over buried hopes and dead joys, on the road of life? Like the scars of the heart, they are not to be obliterated.

Much more genius is needed to make love than to command armies.

It takes a hundred times more skill to make love than to command an army.

Firmness is great; persistency is greater.

Gossip, like ennui, is born of idleness.

A woman should not take a lover without the consent of her heart, nor a husband without the consent of her reason.

Wit is a dangerous talent in friendship.

There are other things besides beauty with which to captivate the hearts of men. The Italians have a saying: Fair is not fair, but that which pleaseth.

Oaths are the counterfeit money with which we pay the sacrifice of love.

Glances are the first billets-doux of love.

The loss of friends is a tax on age!

The joy of the mind is the measure of its strength.

It is not enough to be wise, one must be engaging.

Hatred is nearly always honest
rarely, if ever, assumed. So much cannot be said for love.

If God had to give a woman wrinkles, He might at least have put them on the soles of her feet.