Marquis de Sade Quotes

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

What is more immoral than war?

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

Truth titillates the imagination far less than fiction.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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?

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

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