“Lust’s passion will be served; it demands, it militates, it tyrannizes.”

All men are born free, all have equal rights: never should we lose sight of those principles; according to which never may there be granted to one sex the legitimate right to lay monopolizing hands upon the other, and never may one of the sexes, or classes, arbitrarily possess the other.

If Nature denies eternity to beings, it follows that their destruction is one of her laws.

Never may an act of possession be exercised upon a free being; the exclusive possession of a woman is no less unjust than the possession of slaves.

There is no more lively sensation than that of pain; its impressions are certain and dependable, they never deceive as may those of the pleasure women perpetually feign and almost never experience.

Cruelty, very far from being a vice, is the first sentiment Nature injects in us all.

What crimes would have been spared the world, if they had choked the first imbecile who thought of speaking of you.

Your service will be arduous, it will be painful and rigorous, and the slightest delinquencies will be requited immediately with corporal and afflicting punishments.

Religions are the cradles of despotism.

The rivers of blood are flowing beneath our feet… Ive been to hell, young man, youve only read about it.

The reasoning man who scorns the prejudices of simpletons necessarily becomes the enemy of simpletons; he must expect as much, and laugh at the inevitable.

Chimerical and empty being, your name alone has caused more blood to flow on the face of the earth than any political war ever will.

Thread of their days without pity, and in the midst of life, without ever concerning themselves with this fatal moment, living as though they were to exist for ever, they disappear into the obscure cloud of immortality, uncertain of the fate which lies in store for them.

Fear not lest precautions and protective contrivances diminish your pleasure: mystery only adds thereto.

I assumed that everything must yield to me, that the entire universe had to flatter my whims, and that I had the right to satisfy them at will.

Happiness is ideal, it is the work of the imagination.

Is it not of the imagination that the sharpest pleasures arise?

There are many who lust for the simple answers of doctrine or decree. They are on the left and right. They are not confined to a single part of the society. They are terrorists of the mind.

The love of fame is the last weakness which even the wise resign.

The lust for power, for dominating others, inflames the heart more than any other passion.

The love of dominion is the most engrossing passion.

No hatred is so bitter as that of near relations.

The lust of dominion burns with a flame so fierce as to overpower all other affections of the human breast.

The cause of all these evils was the lust for power arising from greed and ambition; and from these passions proceeded the violence of parties once engaged in contention.

I tell them that if they will occupy themselves with the study of mathematics they will find in it the best remedy against the lusts of the flesh.