"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."

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Added on April 10, 2026
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Military leaders from FranceNovelists from FranceFreemasons
Original Language: English

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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. — Letter 152: La Marquise de Merteuil to le Vicomte de Valmont. Trans. P.W.K. Stone (1961).