Marquis de Sade

Ranking: 99th
Biography of Marquis de Sade
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Quote	Categories	Rating	Rate
"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."	Government
"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."	Age, Military, War
"Imperious, choleric, irascible, extreme in everything, with a dissolute imagination the like of which has never been seen, atheistic to the point of fanaticism, there you have me in a nutshell, and kill me again or take me as I am, for I shall not change."	Change, Imagination, Religion
"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."	Age, Desires, Men
"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."	Ability, Change, Knowledge
"If the objects who serve us feel ecstacy, they are much more often concerned with themselves than with us, and our own enjoyment is consequently impaired. The idea of seeing another person experience the same pleasure reduces one to a kind of equality which spoils the unutterable charms that come from despotism."	Ability, Equality, Experience
"Any enjoyment is weakened when shared."	Happiness, Joy, Men
"No kind of sensation is keener and more active than that of pain; its impressions are unmistakable."	Ability, Mistakes
"Consider the problem from the point of view of evil, evil being almost always pleasure's true and major charm; considered thus, the crime must appear greater when perpetrated upon a being of your identical sort than when inflicted upon one which is not, and this once established, the delight automatically doubles."	Crime, Darkness, Evil
"If it is the dirty element that gives pleasure to the act of lust, then the dirtier it is, the more pleasurable it is bound to be."	Ability, Men
"The degradation which characterizes the state into which you plunge him by punishing him pleases, amuses, and delights him. Deep down he enjoys having gone so far as to deserve being treated in such a way."	Character, Darkness, Happiness
"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."	Crime, Evil, Good
"There is a kind of pleasure which comes from sacrilege or the profanation of the objects offered us for worship."	Miscellaneous
"One must do violence to the object of one's desire; when it surrenders, the pleasure is greater."	Ambition, Desires, Excellence
"The pleasure of the senses is always regulated in accordance with the imagination. Man can aspire to felicity only by serving all the whims of his imagination."	Imagination, Men
"All universal moral principles are idle fantasies."	Miscellaneous
"Sexual pleasure is, I agree, a passion to which all others are subordinate but in which they all unite."	Miscellaneous
"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."	Beauty, Doubt, Imagination
"The idea of God is the sole wrong for which I cannot forgive mankind."	Forgiveness, Men
"I have supported my deviations with reasons; I did not stop at mere doubt; I have vanquished, I have uprooted, I have destroyed everything in my heart that might have interfered with my pleasure."	Art, Destruction, Doubt

Browse Marquis de Sade quotes by category:

Ability	Age	Ambition
Art	Beauty	Change
Character	Crime	Darkness
Desires	Destruction	Doubt
Equality	Evil	Excellence
Experience	Forgiveness	Good
Government	Happiness	Honesty
Imagination	Joy	Knowledge
Light	Men	Military
Miscellaneous	Mistakes	Religion
Strength	Time	Truth
Violence	Wants	War
Wisdom