C.N. Douglas, comp. Forty Thousand Quotations: Prose and Poetical. 1917.
Intrigue
Intrigue is a court distemper.
Every woman is at heart a rake.
As love increases, prudence diminishes.
Audacity as against modesty will win the battle over most men.
There are many women who never have had one intrigue; but there are few who have had only one.
There are many women who have never intrigued, and many men who have never gamed; but those who have done either but once are very extraordinary animals.
When women oppose themselves to the projects and ambition of men, they excite their lively resentment; if in their youth they meddle with political intrigues, their modesty must suffer.
If often happens too, both in courts and in cabinets, that there are two things going on together,—a main plot and an under-plot; and he that understands only one of them will, in all probability, be the dupe of both. A mistress may rule a monarch, but some obscure favorite may rule the mistress.