One must do violence to the object of one’s desire; when it surrenders, the pleasure is greater.
MARQUIS DE SADEOne must do violence to the object of one’s desire; when it surrenders, the pleasure is greater.
MARQUIS DE SADESocial order at the expense of liberty is hardly a bargain.
MARQUIS DE SADEThe horror of wedlock, the most appalling, the most loathsome of all the bonds humankind has devised for its own discomfort and degradation.
MARQUIS DE SADEDread not infanticide; the crime is imaginary: we are always mistress of what we carry in our womb, and we do no more harm in destroying this kind of matter than in evacuating another, by medicines, when we feel the need.
MARQUIS DE SADEWhy do you complain of your fate when you could so easily change it?
MARQUIS DE SADEI have supported my deviations with reasons; I did not stop at mere doubt; I have vanquished, I have uprooted,
MARQUIS DE SADEWere he supreme, were he mighty, were he just, were he good, this God you tell me about, would it be through enigmas and buffooneries he would wish to teach me to serve and know him?
MARQUIS DE SADETo judge from the notions expounded by theologians, one must conclude that God created most men simply with a view to crowding hell.
MARQUIS DE SADEReligions are the cradles of despotism.
MARQUIS DE SADEBeauty is a simple thing; ugliness is the exceptional thing. And fiery imaginations, no doubt, always prefer the extraordinary thing to the simple thing.
MARQUIS DE SADEThe idea of seeing another person experience the same pleasure reduces one to a kind of equality which spoils the unutterable charms that come from despotism.
MARQUIS DE SADEHow delightful are the pleasures of the imagination! In those delectable moments, the whole world is ours; not a single creature resists us.
MARQUIS DE SADEIt is not my mode of thought that has caused my misfortunes, but the mode of thought of others.
MARQUIS DE SADEYour body is the church where Nature asks to be reverenced.
MARQUIS DE SADEMy manner of thinking stems straight from my considered reflections; it holds with my existence, with the way I am made. It is not in my power to alter it; and were it, I’d not do so.
MARQUIS DE SADEThe primary and most beautiful of nature’s qualities is motion
MARQUIS DE SADE