Marquis de Sade

Crime is the soul of lust. What would pleasure be if it were not accompanied by crime It is not the object of debauchery that excites us, rather the idea of evil.

— Marquis de Sade soul

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.

— Marquis de Sade time

I am about to put foward some major ideas they will be heard and pondered. If not all of them please, surely a few will in some sort, then, I shall have contributed to the progress of our age, and shall be content.

— Marquis de Sade war

No kind of sensation is keener and more active than that of pain its impressions are unmistakable.

— Marquis de Sade pain

It has, moreover, been proven that horror, nastiness, and the frightful are what give pleasure when one fornicates. Beauty is a simple thing ugliness is the exceptional thing. And fiery imaginations, no doubt, always prefer the extraordinary thing to the simple thing.

— Marquis de Sade beauty

Certain souls seem hard because they are capable of strong feelings, and they sometimes go to rather extreme lengths their apparent unconcern and cruelty are but ways, known only to themselves, of feeling more strongly than others.

— Marquis de Sade time

Wolves which batten upon lambs, lambs consumed by wolves, the strong who immolate the weak, the weak victims of the strong: there you have Nature, there you have her intentions, there you have her scheme: a perpetual action and reaction, a host of vices, a host of virtues, in one word, a perfect equilibrium resulting from the equality of good and evil on earth.

— Marquis de Sade art

Lusts passion will be served; it demands, it militates, it tyrannizes.

— Marquis de Sade passion

The heart deceives, because it is never anything but the expression of the minds miscalculationsI dont know what the heart is, not I: I only use the word to denote the minds frailties.

— Marquis De Sade art

It is not my mode of thought that has caused my misfortunes, but the mode of thought of others

— Marquis De Sade thought

Womans destiny is to be wanton, like the bitch, the she-wolf; she must belong to all who claim her.

— Marquis De Sade destiny

Your body is the church where Nature asks to be reverenced.

— Marquis De Sade nature

Nature has not got two voices, you know, one of them condemning all day what the other commands.

— Marquis De Sade nature

Never lose sight of the fact that all human felicity lies in mans 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.

— Marquis De Sade imagination

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 love

One is never so dangerous when one has no shame, than when one has grown too old to blush.

— Marquis De Sade anger

One weeps not save when one is afraid, and that is why kings are tyrants.

— Marquis De Sade

Religions are the cradles of despotism.

— Marquis De Sade religion

Sensual excess drives out pity in man.

— Marquis De Sade man

Sex is as important as eating or drinking and we ought to allow the one appetite to be satisfied with as little restraint or false modesty as the other.

— Marquis De Sade sex

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.

— Marquis De Sade love

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.

— Marquis De Sade silence

The idea of God is the sole wrong for which I cannot forgive mankind.

— Marquis De Sade god

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 joy

The primary and most beautiful of Natures 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.

— Marquis De Sade time

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.

— Marquis De Sade philosophy

There is no God, Nature sufficeth unto herself; in no wise hath she need of an author.

— Marquis De Sade god

They declaim against the passions without bothering to think that it is from their flame philosophy lights its torch.

— Marquis De Sade philosophy

To judge from the notions expounded by theologians, one must conclude that God created most men simply with a view to crowding hell.

— Marquis De Sade god

Truth titillates the imagination far less than fiction.

— Marquis De Sade truth

Variety, multiplicity are the two most powerful vehicles of lust.

— Marquis De Sade power

What is more immoral than war?

— Marquis De Sade war

All universal moral principles are idle fancies.

— Marquis De Sade

All, all is theft, all is unceasing and rigorous competition in nature; the desire to make off with the substance of others is the foremost - the most legitimate - passion nature has bred into us and, without doubt, the most agreeable one.

— Marquis De Sade nature

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.

— Marquis De Sade passion

Are wars anything but the means whereby a nation is nourished, whereby it is strengthened, whereby it is buttressed?

— Marquis De Sade war

Between understanding and faith immediate connections must subsist.

— Marquis De Sade faith

Destruction, hence, like creation, is one of Natures mandates.

— Marquis De Sade nature

Ive already told you: the only way to a womans heart is along the path of torment. I know none other as sure.

— Marquis De Sade art

In order to know virtue, we must first acquaint ourselves with vice.

— Marquis De Sade virtue

It is always by way of pain one arrives at pleasure.

— Marquis De Sade pain

Lust is to the other passions what the nervous fluid is to life; it supports them all, lends strength to them all ambition, cruelty, avarice, revenge, are all founded on lust.

— Marquis De Sade life

Mans 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 love

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!

— Marquis De Sade thinking

Til the infallibility of human judgements shall have been proved to me, I shall demand the abolition of the penalty of death.

— Marquis De Sade death

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.

— Marquis De Sade death

It is certain that stealing nourishes courage, strength, skill, tact, in a word, all the virtues useful to a republican system and consequently to our own. Lay partiality aside, and answer me: is theft, whose effect is to distribute wealth more evenly, to be branded as a wrong in our day, under our government which aims at equality? Plainly, the answer is no.

— Marquis De Sade art

The mechanism that directs governmentcannot be virtuous, because it is impossible to thwart every crime, to protect oneself from every criminal without being criminal too; that which directs corrupt mankind must be corrupt itself; and it will never be by means of virtue, virtue being inert and passive, that you will maintain control over vice, which is ever active: the governor must be more energetic than the governed.

— Marquis De Sade war

T requires only two things to win credit for a miracle: a mountebank and a number of silly women.

— Marquis De Sade women

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.

— Marquis De Sade women

The more defects a man may have, the older he is, the less lovable, the more resounding his success.

— Marquis De Sade success

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

— Marquis De Sade happiness

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.

— Marquis De Sade happiness

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