If the objects who serve us feel ecstacy, they are much more often concerned with themselves than with us, and our own enjoyment is consequently impaired.
MARQUIS DE SADEIf the objects who serve us feel ecstacy, they are much more often concerned with themselves than with us, and our own enjoyment is consequently impaired.
MARQUIS DE SADENature has not got two voices, you know, one of them condemning all day what the other commands.
MARQUIS DE SADEThe imagination is the spur of delights… all depends upon it, it is the mainspring of everything; now, is it not by means of the imagination one knows joy? Is it not of the imagination that the sharpest pleasures arise?
MARQUIS DE SADEWhat I should like to find is a crime the effects of which would be perpetual, even when I myself do not act, so that there would not be a single moment of my life even when I were asleep.
MARQUIS DE SADEWhen I was not the cause of some chaos, a chaos of such proportions that it would provoke a general corruption or a distubance so formal that even after my death its effects would still be felt.
MARQUIS DE SADEThe primary and most beautiful of nature’s qualities is motion
MARQUIS DE SADEMy manner of thinking, so you say, cannot be approved. Do you suppose I care?
MARQUIS DE SADEI 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.
MARQUIS DE SADEHappiness lies only in that which excites, and the only thing that excites is crime.
MARQUIS DE SADEI have supported my deviations with reasons; I did not stop at mere doubt; I have vanquished, I have uprooted,
MARQUIS DE SADEThe man who alters his way of thinking to suit others is a fool.
MARQUIS DE SADEI want to be the victim of his errors.
MARQUIS DE SADEWhat do I see there but a frail being forever unable to bring man to heel and force him to bend a knee. This creature, although emanated from him, dominates him, knows how to offend him and thereby merit torments eternally! What a weak fellow, this God!
MARQUIS DE SADEI’ve already told you: the only way to a woman’s heart is along the path of torment. I know none other as sure.
MARQUIS DE SADEHappiness lies neither in vice nor in virtue; but in the manner we appreciate the one and the other, and the choice we make pursuant to our individual organization.
MARQUIS DE SADEMy passions, concentrated on a single point, resemble the rays of a sun assembled by a magnifying glass: they immediately set fire to whatever object they find in their way.
MARQUIS DE SADE