Quotes by "Marquis de Sade"

The man who alters his way of thinking to suit others is a fool.

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

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

Chimerical and empty being, your name alone has caused more blood to flow on the face of the earth than any political war ever will. Return to the nothingness from which the mad hope and ridiculous fright of men dared call you forth to their misfortune. You only appeared as a torment for the human race. What crimes would have been spared the world, if they had choked the first imbecile who thought of speaking of you.

One would have to lose one's wits to believe in a God, and to become a complete imbecile to adore Him.

and how can you be happy when you can find satisfaction at any moment? It is not in pleasure that happiness consists, it is in desire – it is in breaking the chains that hold back this desire;

If they who are appointed to instruct and rule over men had wisdom and virtue themselves, realities, and not fantasies, would enable them to govern better; but scoundrels, quacksalvers, ambitious ruffians, or low sneaks, the lawgivers have ever found it easier to lull nations to sleep with bedtime tales than to teach truths to the public, than to develop intelligence in the population, than to encourage men to virtue by making it worthwhile for sound and palpable reasons, than, in short, to govern them in a logical manner.

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

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.

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.

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!

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.

Social order at the expense of liberty is hardly a bargain.

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

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

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.

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.

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

Between understanding and faith immediate connections must subsist.

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