Marquis de Sade quotes - page 3

They declaim against the passions without bothering to think that it is from their flame philosophy lights its torch. (Marquis de Sade)
To judge from the notions expounded by theologians, one must conclude that God created most men simply with a view to crowding hell. View quote
Marquis de Sade
She had already allowed her delectable lover to pluck that flower which, so different from the rose to which it is nevertheless sometimes compared, has not the same faculty of being reborn each spring. View quote
Marquis de Sade
Happiness is ideal, it is the work of the imagination. View quote
Marquis de Sade
Never lose sight of the fact that all human felicity lies in man's imagination, and that he cannot think to attain it unless he heeds all his caprices. The most fortunate of persons is he who has the most means to satisfy his vagaries. View quote
Marquis de Sade
It is not my mode of thought that has caused my misfortunes, but the mode of thought of others. View quote
Marquis de Sade
The ultimate triumph of philosophy would be to cast light upon the mysterious ways in which Providence moves to achieve the designs it has for man. View quote
Marquis de Sade
So long as the laws remain such as they are today, employ some discretion: loud opinion forces us to do so; but in privacy and silence let us compensate ourselves for that cruel chastity we are obliged to display in public. View quote
Marquis de Sade
What is more immoral than war? View quote
Marquis de Sade
Truth titillates the imagination far less than fiction. View quote
Marquis de Sade
Man's natural character is to imitate; that of the sensitive man is to resemble as closely as possible the person whom he loves. It is only by imitating the vices of others that I have earned my misfortunes. (Marquis de Sade)
Are wars anything but the means whereby a nation is nourished, whereby it is strengthened, whereby it is buttressed? View quote
Marquis de Sade
Between understanding and faith immediate connections must subsist. View quote
Marquis de Sade
Nature has not got two voices, you know, one of them condemning all day what the other commands. View quote
Marquis de Sade
Destruction, hence, like creation, is one of Nature's mandates. View quote
Marquis de Sade
...there is a sum of evil equal to the sum of good, the continuing equilibrium of the world requires that there be as many good people as wicked people... View quote
Marquis de Sade
Let us leave off believing that religion can be useful to man. Instead, let us have good laws, and we can then do without religion. View quote
Marquis de Sade
The Duke soon imitated his old friend's little infamy and wagered that, enormous as Invictus' prick might be, he could calmly down three bottles of wine while lying embuggered upon it. View quote
Marquis de Sade
The Duc, pike aloft, closed in upon Augustine; he brayed, he swore, he waxed unreasonable, and the poor little thing, all atremble, retreated like a dove before the bird of prey ready to pounce upon it. View quote
Marquis de Sade
Our four libertines, half-drunk but nonetheless resolved to abide their laws, contented themselves with kisses, fingerings, but their libertine intelligence knew how to season these mild activities with all the refinements of debauch and lubricity. View quote
Marquis de Sade
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 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. (Marquis de Sade)
Get it into your head once and for all, my simple and very fainthearted fellow, that what fools call humanness is nothing but a weakness born of fear and egoism that this chimerical virtue, enslaving only weak men, is unknown to those whose character is formed by stoicism, courage, and philosophy. View quote
Marquis de Sade
In libertinage, nothing is frightful, because everything libertinage suggests is also a natural inspiration the most extraordinary, the most bizarre acts, those which most arrantly seem to conflict with every law, every human institution... even those that are not frightful, and there is not one amongst them all that cannot be demonstrated within the boundaries of nature. View quote
Marquis de Sade
If Nature denies eternity to beings, it follows that their destruction is one of her laws. Now, once we observe that destruction is so useful to her that she absolutely cannot dispense with it from this moment onward the idea of annihilation which we attach to death ceases to be real what we call the end of the living animal is no longer a true finish, but a simple transformation, a transmutation of matter. According to these irrefutable principles, death is hence no more than a change of form, an imperceptible passage from one existence into another. View quote
Marquis de Sade
Do not breed. Nothing gives less pleasure than childbearing. Pregnancies are damaging to health, spoil the figure, wither the charms, and it's the cloud of uncertainty forever hanging over these events that darkens a husband's mood. View quote
Marquis de Sade