Marquis de Sade Quotes


Sexual pleasure is, I agree, a passion to which all others are subordinate but in which they all unite. Marquis De Sade Sex 159
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 136
There is no God, Nature sufficeth unto herself; in no wise hath she need of an author. Marquis de Sade Nature 131
The horror of wedlock, the most appalling, the most loathsome of all the bonds humankind has devised for its own discomfort and degradation. Marquis De Sade Marriage 127
Religions are the cradles of despotism. Marquis De Sade Religion 112
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. Marquis de Sade Nature 108
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 Approved 106
One weeps not save when one is afraid, and that is why kings are tyrants. Marquis De Sade Crying 104
Social order at the expense of liberty is hardly a bargain. Marquis De Sade Bargain 101
They declaim against the passions without bothering to think that it is from their flame philosophy lights its torch. Marquis De Sade Passion 95
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 94
Lycurgus, Numa, Moses, Jesus Christ, Mohammed, all these great rogues, all these great thought-tyrants, knew how to associate the divinities they fabricated with their own boundless ambition. Marquis De Sade Prophecy 92
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 Tact 89
One is never so dangerous when one has no shame, than when one has grown too old to blush. Marquis De Sade Blush 88
Conversation, like certain portions of the anatomy, always runs more smoothly when lubricated. Marquis De Sade Communication 87
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 Desires 84
Here am I: at one stroke incestuous, adulteress, sodomite, and all that in a girl who only lost her maidenhead today! What progress, my friends... with what rapidity I advance along the thorny road of vice! Marquis De Sade Virtue 83
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 Faith 82
What is more immoral than war? Marquis De Sade Immoral 78
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 Happy 76
Dread not infanticide; the crime is imaginary: we are always mistress of what we carry in our womb, and we do no more harm in destroying this kind of matter than in evacuating another, by medicines, when we feel the need. Marquis De Sade Abortion 74
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. Marquis de Sade Imagination 72
Your body is the church where Nature asks to be reverenced. Marquis de Sade Fitness 70
Humane sentiments are baseless, mad, and improper; they are incredibly feeble; never do they withstand the gainsaying passions, never do they resist bare necessity. Marquis De Sade Sympathy 67
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 Imagination 66
It is only by enlarging the scope of ones tastes and ones fantasies by sacrificing everything to pleasure that the unfortunate individual called Man thrown despite himself into this sad world can succeed in gathering a few roses among lifes thorns Marquis de Sade Pleasure 64
Nature has not got two voices, you know, one of them condemning all day what the other commands. Marquis de Sade Nature 61
Truth titillates the imagination far less than fiction. Marquis de Sade Imagination 61
Ah, Eug?nie, have done with virtues! Among the sacrifices that can be made to those counterfeit divinities, is there one worth an instant of the pleasures one tastes in outraging them? Marquis De Sade Virtue 60
Miserable creatures, thrown for a moment on the surface of this little pile of mud, is it decreed that one half of the flock should be the persecutor of the other? Is it for you, mankind, to pronounce on what is good and what is evil? Marquis De Sade Prejudice 60
Happiness is ideal, it is the work of the imagination. Marquis de Sade Happy 60
The more defects a man may have, the older he is, the less lovable, the more resounding his success. Marquis de Sade Success 59
In order to know virtue we must acquaint ourselves with vice. Only then can we know the true measure of a man. Marquis de Sade Man 58
Destruction, hence, like creation, is one of Nature's mandates. Marquis de Sade Nature 58
The majority of pop stars are complete idiots in every respect. Marquis De Sade Fame 54
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 Men 53
We are no guiltier in following the primative impulses that govern us than is the Nile for her floods or the sea for her waves. Marquis De Sade Sex 49
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 Law 49
Prejudice is the sole author of infamies: how many acts are so qualified by an opinion forged out of naught but prejudice! Marquis De Sade Prejudice 46
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 Nature 46
What does one want when one is engaged in the sexual act? That everything around you give you its utter attention, think only of you, care only for you...every man wants to be a tyrant when he fornicates. Marquis De Sade Sex 44
The reasoning man who scorns the prejudices of simpletons necessarily becomes the enemy of simpletons; he must expect as much, and laugh at the inevitable. Marquis De Sade Inspirational 43
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 42
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 Sex 39
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 Experience 37
Between understanding and faith immediate connections must subsist. Marquis de Sade Faith 33
Let us give ourselves indiscriminately to everything our passions suggest and we will always be happyConscience is not the voice of Nature but only the voice of prejudice. Marquis de Sade Nature 33

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Marquis de Sade Quotes

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