1740-1814, French Author
The mechanism that directs government cannot be virtuous, because it is impossible to thwart every crime, to protect oneself from every criminal without being criminal too; that which directs corrupt mankind must be corrupt itself; and it will never be by means of virtue, virtue being inert and passive, that you will maintain control over vice, which is ever active: the governor must be more energetic than the governed.
Marquis De Sade – [Government]
The more defects a man may have, the older he is, the less lovable, the more resounding his success.
Marquis De Sade – [Faults]
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 – [Change]
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 – [Philosophers and Philosophy]
There is no God, Nature sufficeth unto herself; in no wise hath she need of an author.
Marquis De Sade – [Atheism]
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 – [Pain]
They declaim against the passions without bothering to think that it is from their flame philosophy lights its torch.
Marquis De Sade – [Passion]
Those laws, being forged for universal application, are in perpetual conflict with personal interest, just as personal interest is always in contradiction with the general interest. Good for society, our laws are very bad for the individuals whereof it is composed; for, if they one time protect the individual, they hinder, trouble, fetter him for three quarters of his life.
Marquis De Sade – [Law and Lawyers]
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 – [Theology]
Wolves which batten upon lambs, lambs consumed by wolves, the strong who immolate the weak, the weak victims of the strong: there you have Nature, there you have her intentions, there you have her scheme: a perpetual action and reaction, a host of vices, a host of virtues, in one word, a perfect equilibrium resulting from the equality of good and evil on earth.
Marquis De Sade – [Aggression]
Woman's destiny is to be wanton, like the bitch, the she-wolf; she must belong to all who claim her.
Marquis De Sade – [Women]
Your body is the church where Nature asks to be reverenced.
Marquis De Sade – [Body]
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