Quotessence
Home / Authors / Marquis de Sade
Marquis de Sade

Marquis de Sade Quotes

Philosopher

Filter quotes by topic

AllPleasureMenVirtueLiteratureCrimeIfsImaginationLawPassionVicesWaySexThinkingKinkyMeanEvilHappinessKnowsLoveReason

Famous Marquis de Sade Quotes

“There are no more than two or three crimes to commit in the world,’ said Curval. ‘Once those are done there is no more to be said – what remains is inferior and one no longer feels a thing. How many times, good God, have I not wished it were possible to attack the sun, to deprive the universe of it, or to use it to set the world ablaze – those would be crimes indeed, and not the little excesses in which we indulge, which do no more than metamorphose, in the course of a year, a dozen creatures into clods of earth.”

NaturePleasurePowerCrimeRebellionDepravity
Book:The 120 Days of Sodom
Create image

“How many times, by God’s bloody prick, have I longed to be able to detonate planets, to destroy the sun itself, to pluck it from the universe and crash it into the earth, annihilating all Creation and replacing it with a lightless void of violence. Ah, that would be a crime! A cosmic crime, dwarfing the petty misdemeanours we are committing here, limited as we are to snuffing out a few meaningless souls”

PassionViolenceCrimeNihilismSadismLibertineSadeSodom
Book:The 120 Days of Sodom
Create image

“How many times, by God’s bloody prick, have I longed to be able to detonate planets, to destroy the sun itself, to puck it from the universe and crash it into the earth, annihilating all Creation and replacing it with a lightless void of violence. Ah, that would be a crime! A cosmic crime, dwarfing the petty misdemeanours we are committing here, limited as we are to snuffing out a few meaningless souls.”

EvilViolenceCrimeMoralityEroticaPornSadismAnti ReligionSadeDe Sade
Book:The 120 Days of Sodom
Create image

“How I love to hear the rich and titled, the magistrates and the priests, how I love to watch them preach virtue to us! It is very hard to keep oneself from stealing when one has three times more than one to live! A great strain to never think of murder when one is surrounded by sycophants and slaves for whom your will is law! Truly difficult to be temperate and sober when one is at all times surrounded by the most succulent dishes! So difficult for them to be sincere when they have no reason to lie!”

PoorRichCrimeBourgeoisieJustine
Book:Justine, or The Misfortunes of Virtue
Create image

“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.”

ProblemLightTruthEvilPleasureViewsDarknessGreaterCrimeHonestyMajorsExcellenceDelightPoint Of ViewCharmIdentical
Book:120 days of sodom
Create image

“What I should like to find is a crime the effects of which would be perpetual, even when I myself do not act, so that there would not be a single moment of my life even when I were asleep, when I was not the cause of some chaos, a chaos of such proportions that it would provoke a general corruption or a distubance so formal that even after my death its effects would still be felt.”

ShouldStillsMomentsWould BeFeltCausesEffectsCrimeChaosCorruptionProportionPerpetualProvokingFormal
Author:Marquis de Sade
Create image

“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.”

IfsMenWorldFirstsHumansHas BeensWarEarthFacesPoliticalNamesRaceBloodCrimeReturnFlowEmptyMadRidiculousHuman RaceMisfortunesNothingnessTormentFrightImbeciles
Author:Marquis de Sade
Create image

“It is certain that stealing nourishes courage, strength, skill, tact, in a word, all the virtues useful to a republican system and consequently to our own. Lay partiality aside, and answer me: is theft, whose effect is to distribute wealth more evenly, to be branded as a wrong in our day, under our government which aims at equality? Plainly, the answer is no.”

GovernmentCertainWealthAnswersVirtueEffectsCrimeRepublicanSkillsAimLaysStealingTheftTactCourage StrengthBrandedPartiality
Author:Marquis de Sade
Create image

“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.”

MeanGovernmentVirtueImpossibleMankindCrimeProtectOneselfVicesActiveCriminalsMechanismVirtuousGovernorsPassiveEnergetic
Book:Juliette
Create image