Marquis de Sade quotes - page 2

Voluptuaries of all ages, of every sex, it is to you only that I offer this work; nourish yourselves upon its principles: they favor your passions, and these passions, whereof coldly insipid moralists put you in fear, are naught but the means Nature employs to bring man to the ends she prescribes to him; harken only to these delicious promptings, for no voice save that of the passions can conduct you to happiness. (Marquis de Sade)
You young maidens, too long constrained by a fanciful Virtue's absurd and dangerous bonds and by those of a disgusting religion, imitate the fiery Eugénie; be as quick as she to destroy, to spurn all those ridiculous precepts inculcated in you by imbecile parents. View quote
Marquis de Sade
The philosopher must teach these pupils [French students] that it is far less essential to understand nature than to enjoy and respect its laws; that these laws are both wise and simple; that they are written in all human hearts, and that one need merely question a heart in order to appreciate its impulses. View quote
Marquis de Sade
And you, amiable debauchees, you who since youth have known no limits but those of your desires and who have been governed by your caprices alone, study the cynical Dolmancé, proceed like him and go as far as he if you too would travel the length of those flowered ways your lechery prepares for you; in Dolmancé's academy be at last convinced it is only by exploring and enlarging the sphere of his tastes and whims, it is only by sacrificing everything to the senses' pleasure that this individual, who never asked to be cast into this universe of woe, that this poor creature who goes under the name of Man, may be able to sow a smattering of roses atop the thorny path of life. View quote
Marquis de Sade
Lycurgus, Numa, Moses, Jesus Christ, Muhammad-all these great scoundrels, all these big despots of our ideas knew how to bond their concocted divinities with their immense ambitions. Certain of captivating nations with the sanction of their gods, these villains, as we know, took care either to question their deities at an appropriate moment or to have them answer only whatever they believed could serve their purpose. View quote
Marquis de Sade
Never will a free man bow to the gods of Christianity; never will its dogmas, never will its rites, never its mysteries, never its morals be suitable for a republican. View quote
Marquis de Sade
The total annihilation of divine worship, which we are spreading through Europe. We should not be content with shattering scepters, we must smash idols forever. There has never been more than one step from superstition to royalism. View quote
Marquis de Sade
Survey the histories of all nations. You will never see them exchange their form of government for a monarchy, given their gradation by superstition; you will always see kings supporting religion, and religion supporting kings. View quote
Marquis de Sade
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. View quote
Marquis de Sade
The primary and most beautiful of Nature's qualities is motion, which agitates her at all times, but this motion is simply a perpetual consequence of crimes, she conserves it by means of crimes only. View quote
Marquis de Sade
No lover, if he be of good faith, and sincere, will deny he would prefer to see his mistress dead than unfaithful. (Marquis de Sade)
Happiness 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. View quote
Marquis de Sade
All universal moral principles are idle fancies. View quote
Marquis de Sade
One is never so dangerous when one has no shame, than when one has grown too old to blush. View quote
Marquis de Sade
Religions are the cradles of despotism. View quote
Marquis de Sade
My manner of thinking, so you say, cannot be approved. Do you suppose I care? A poor fool indeed is he who adopts a manner of thinking for others! View quote
Marquis de Sade
The more defects a man may have, the older he is, the less lovable, the more resounding his success. View quote
Marquis de Sade
Nature, who for the perfect maintenance of the laws of her general equilibrium, has sometimes need of vices and sometimes of virtues, inspires now this impulse, now that one, in accordance with what she requires. View quote
Marquis de Sade
Are not laws dangerous which inhibit the passions? Compare the centuries of anarchy with those of the strongest legalism in any country you like and you will see that it is only when the laws are silent that the greatest actions appear. View quote
Marquis de Sade
There is no God, Nature sufficeth unto herself; in no wise hath she need of an author. View quote
Marquis de Sade
The 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 Sade)
One weeps not save when one is afraid, and that is why kings are tyrants. View quote
Marquis de Sade
Sensual excess drives out pity in man. View quote
Marquis de Sade
Variety, multiplicity are the two most powerful vehicles of lust. View quote
Marquis de Sade
'Til the infallibility of human judgements shall have been proved to me, I shall demand the abolition of the penalty of death. View quote
Marquis de Sade