# Quote — Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, Les Liaisons Dangereuses

> Either you have a rival or you don't. If you have one, you must set out to please, so as to be preferred to him. If you don't have one, you must still please so as to obviate the possibility of having one.

- Author: [Pierre Choderlos de Laclos](https://www.leafyquotes.com/pierre-choderlos-de-laclos.md)
- Book: [Les Liaisons Dangereuses](https://www.leafyquotes.com/pierre-choderlos-de-laclos/les-liaisons-dangereuses.md)
- Original (fr): Ou vous avez un rival ou vous n'en n'avez pas. Si vous en avez un, il faut plaire pour lui être préféré; si vous n'en n'avez pas, il faut encore plaire pour éviter d'en avoir.
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Pierre_Choderlos_de_Laclos#Les_liaisons_dangereuses_(1782)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/pierre-choderlos-de-laclos/les-liaisons-dangereuses/either-you-have

## More from this book

> Luxury, nowadays, is ruinous. We criticize, but must conform, and superfluities in the end deprive us of necessities.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/pierre-choderlos-de-laclos/les-liaisons-dangereuses/luxury-nowadays-is-ruinous.md)

> Only love can make one happy.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/pierre-choderlos-de-laclos/les-liaisons-dangereuses/only-love-can.md)

> One hand was needed for power, the other for love: where is the orator that could aspire to grace in such a position?

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/pierre-choderlos-de-laclos/les-liaisons-dangereuses/one-hand-was.md)