Every principle is a judgment, every judgment the outcome of experience, and experience is only acquired by the exercise of the senses . . .
MARQUIS DE SADEEvery principle is a judgment, every judgment the outcome of experience, and experience is only acquired by the exercise of the senses . . .
MARQUIS DE SADEMy way of thinking is the result of my reflections. It is part of my inner being,the way I am made. I do not contradict them, and would not even if I wished to.
MARQUIS DE SADEOne must do violence to the object of one’s desire; when it surrenders, the pleasure is greater.
MARQUIS DE SADEI have destroyed everything in my heart that might have interfered with my pleasure.
MARQUIS DE SADEDestruction, hence, like creation, is one of Nature’s mandates.
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 SADEWhat is more immoral than war?
MARQUIS DE SADENothing we can do outrages Nature directly. Our acts of destruction give her new vigour and feed her energy, but none of our wreckings can weaken her power.
MARQUIS DE SADEConversation, like certain portions of the anatomy, always runs more smoothly when lubricated.
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 SADEThe primary and most beautiful of nature’s qualities is motion
MARQUIS DE SADEIn libertinage, nothing is frightful, because everything libertinage suggests is also a natural inspiration.
MARQUIS DE SADEThe most extraordinary, the most bizarre acts, those which most arrantly seem to conflict with every law, every human institution.
MARQUIS DE SADECruelty, very far from being a vice, is the first sentiment Nature injects in us all.
MARQUIS DE SADESexual pleasure is, I agree, a passion to which all others are subordinate but in which they all unite.
MARQUIS DE SADEPrejudice is the sole author of infamies: how many acts are so qualified by an opinion forged out of naught but prejudice!
MARQUIS DE SADE