VALMONT

My dear, you know me; you know that, among the virtues I try to acquire, tolerance is the one I most cherish. So, if Valmont were carried along by the fire of his passion, or if, like a thousand others, he were led astray into errors common to the age, then, while blaming him for his conduct, I should sympathize with him; I should hold my tongue and wait for him to turn over a new leaf and once again earn the esteem of respectable people. But that is not Valmont. His conduct is the result of his principles. He can calculate how far a man may permit himself to do dreadful deeds without compromising himself; and so that he may be wicked and cruel with impunity he has chosen women to be his victims. I shall not stop to count all the women he has seduced; but how many of them has he not ruined?

(Letter IX, Madame de Volanges to the Présidente de Tourvel)