Marquise de Merteuil:  When I came out into society , I was _ fifteen _ . I already knew that the role I was condemned to , namely to keep quiet and do what I was told , gave me the perfect opportunity to listen and observe . Not to what people told me , which naturally was of no interest , but to whatever it was they were trying to hide . I practiced detachment . I learned how to look cheerful while , under the table , I stuck a fork into the back of my hand . I became a virtuoso of deceit . It was n't pleasure I was after , it was knowledge . I consulted the strictest moralists to learn how to appear , philosophers to find out what to think , and novelists to see what I could get away with . And in the end , I distilled everything to one wonderfully simple principle : win or die .