Les Liaisons dangereuses (Dangerous Liaisons) Religion Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Part.Letter.Paragraph)

Quote #1

And if our God judges us by our deeds, you will one day be the patron of some great city, while I shall be, at most, a village saint. (1.4.1)

Valmont and Merteuil are religious: they worship themselves.

Quote #2

You cannot imagine the fuss she has made ever since, and how edified she is by my regular attendance at prayers and at Mass. She has no suspicion of the nature of the divinity I go to worship. (1.4.4.)

We'll say this: Valmont knows his target. He appeals to the very thing that will endear him to Madame de Tourvel: religious piety. His own "divinity" is sexual desire, apparently.

Quote #3

You may conquer her love of God: you will never overcome her fear of the devil. (1.5.3)

Madame de Merteuil turns out to be right. Madame de Tourvel succumbs to Valmont eventually, but she never gives up the idea that she's damned for it.

Quote #4

I shall carry her off from the very God that she adores. (1.6.3)

Valmont has this rebellion-against-God thing going on. Maybe he was traumatized at church as a child. As far as we know, he's never had the slightest attachment to religion. In fact, he has total contempt for it and ridicules it at every opportunity.

Quote #5

I asked the worthy peasantry to intercede with God for the success of my plans. (1.21.6)

Valmont won't pass up the opportunity to be sacrilegious. He's asking others to pray that God blesses his villainy and sin. This amuses him. Even though he's not religious at all, he can speak the language well enough to know how to convince others of his piety. Everyone in those days received a Christian education, regardless of whether they decided to practice their faith.

Quote #6

Would God allow a virtuous family to receive help at the hands of a rascal; help for which they will return thanks to Divine Providence? (1.22.3)

Madame de Tourvel, pious as she is, is still naïve. If someone does good, that person cannot to her be "an enemy of virtue." She cannot seem to fathom the possibility of such grand deception as Valmont has done. The novel shows over and over again that God "allows" plenty of terrible things to happen to good people.

Quote #7

What God does she hope to invoke? Is there one strong enough to prevail against love? She will look in vain for help elsewhere, when it is I alone who can guide her destiny.

Valmont's ambition is nothing less than to be, in effect, the divine power that Madame de Tourvel follows. He refers to himself as a god several times in the novel. His definition of God is whoever has the most power to control others.

Quote #8

Leaving it to Providence to protect you from a danger against which I can do nothing, I confine myself to supporting you as far as I possibly can. I cannot relieve your distress, but I can share it. (3.103.4)

Madame de Rosemonde makes the distinction for Madame de Tourvel between what she can do and what is up to God to do. Contrast this with the secular worldviews of Valmont and Merteuil, in which they are in control of everything and God is irrelevant at best.

Quote #9

He alone will be my judge. (4.128.4)

This is Madame de Tourvel writing, but she is not speaking of God. She's speaking of Valmont, who has replaced God in her heart.

Quote #10

Having fulfilled the painful duties of friendship, and being powerless to add my consolations to them, I have only one favour left to ask you, my dear, and that is that you will not question me upon anything relating to this sad affair. Without looking for useless and distressing explanations, let us submit to the decrees of Providence. Let us believe in the wisdom of its ways even though it is not permitted us to understand them. (4.172.5)

Madame de Rosemonde is offering her opinion to Madame de Volanges that Cécile should be allowed to remain in the convent. She asks her not to question her opinion. She uses the "God's mysterious ways" argument to dissuade Madame de Volanges from questioning the situation. Do you think she really believes this or is she's just trying to protect her from learning the awful truth about what happened to he daughter?