Marquis De Sade Quotes.

Q U O T E S
"We are much more keenly affected by pain than by pleasure."

"Cruelty is simply the energy in a man civilization has not yet altogether corrupted."

"Destruction, like creation, is one of Nature's mandates."

"We owe nothing to our parents. . . not the least thing. . . . because the rights of birth establish nothing, are basis to nothing, and, once they have been wisely scrutinized and with deliberation, we will surely find nothing there but reasons to hate those who, exclusively thoughtful of their own pleasure, have often given us nothing but an unhappy and unhealthy existence."

"Love is a form of insanity."

"Goodness is never but a weakness of which the ingratitude and impertinence of the feeble always force honest folk to repent."

"All men are born isolated, envious, cruel, and despotic ; wishing to have everything and surrender nothing. . . ."

"Let us accustom ourselves to evil and it will not be long before we find it charming."

"No brake should be applied to passion ; when the appetites speak, they must be heard."

"The thing that interests me least in the world is what happens to others."

"Better to be vicious along with everyone else than to be a good man alone."

"Nature has given us . . . weak individuals to be our slaves; they are her gift to us."

"No good deed ever goes unpunished. Judge for yourself how incredibly ridiculous, and dangerous, it must always be to do good unto your fellow man."

"I abhor mankind. . . . I strongly doubt . . . whether at any moment in the day I for my part am not animated by the most vehement impulse, or caressing some black scheme, to cause harm to humankind ; there is no more execrable species. Be he powerful, then man is dangerous . . . Is he puny, weak, woebegone? then how base he is, how vile, how disgusting within and without! Oh, many a time have I blushed at having been born in the midst of such creatures. My one comfort is that Nature loathes them no less than I, for she destroys them daily ; I wish only that I had as many means as she at my command for contriving their undoing ; had I, I'd wipe the lot off the face of the earth."

"There is no more selfish passion than lust; none that is severer in its demands ; smitten stiff by desire , 'tis with yourself that you must be solely concerned, and as for the object that serves you, it must always be considered as some sort of victim, destined to that passion's fury."

"Lust's passion will be served ; it demands, it militates, it tyrranizes, it must therefore be appeased, and to its satisfaction all other conditions are totally irrelevant."

"Is it my fault if Nature gave me tastes that differ from the ordinary?"

"As regards active flagellation, in all the world can there be a greater delight for hardhearted tough-minded individuals like us? Is there another that so clearly bears the stamp of ferocity that, briefly, more fully satisfies our Nature-given penchant for cruelty?"

"I affirm that the fundamental, profoundest, and keenest penchant in man is incontestably to enchain his fellow creatures and to tyrranize them with all his might.... A bent for destruction cruelty, and oppression is the first which Nature graves in our hearts."

"There are hearts which harden rather than melt before the efforts of those who strive to appeal to them."

"Ah! be certain of it, my brothers, it was not to see us grovel in the grips of a sentiment so base that Nature put muscle and intelligence on our side : it was to rule that weaker and deceitful sex , to force it into our desires' service ; and we totally forget her intentions when we accord some independence, let alone some ascendancy to beings whom she made to be absolutely in our power."

"... remember Machiavelli, according to whom it were better to be impetuous than circumspect, because Nature is a woman to be mastered only by him who goes to her whip in hand."