Marquis de Sade · 784 pages
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“The man who alters his way of thinking to suit others is a fool.”
― Marquis de Sade, quote from Justine, Philosophy in the Bedroom, and Other Writings
“Destruction, hence, like creation, is one of Nature's mandates.”
― Marquis de Sade, quote from Justine, Philosophy in the Bedroom, and Other Writings
“Nature has endowed each of us with a capacity for kindly feelings: let us not squander them on others.”
― Marquis de Sade, quote from Justine, Philosophy in the Bedroom, and Other Writings
“The completest submissiveness is your lot, and that is all;”
― Marquis de Sade, quote from Justine, Philosophy in the Bedroom, and Other Writings
“If God permits virtue to be persecuted on earth, it is not for us to question his intentions. It may be that his rewards are held over for another life, for is it not true as written in Holy Scripture that the Lord chastenenth only the righteous! And after all, is not virtue it's own reward?”
― Marquis de Sade, quote from Justine, Philosophy in the Bedroom, and Other Writings
“Not my manner of thinking but the manner of thinking of others has been the source of my unhappiness.”
― Marquis de Sade, quote from Justine, Philosophy in the Bedroom, and Other Writings
“The reasoning man who scorns the prejudices of simpletons necessarily becomes the enemy of simpletons; he must expect as much, and laugh at the inevitable. A traveler journeys along a fine road. It has been strewn with traps. He falls into one. Do you say it is the traveler’s fault, or that of the scoundrel who lays the traps?”
― Marquis de Sade, quote from Justine, Philosophy in the Bedroom, and Other Writings
“There is not a living man who does not wish to play the despot when he is stiff: it seems to him his joy is less when others appear to have as much fun as he; by an impulse of pride, very natural at this juncture, he would like to be the only one in the world capable of experiencing what he feels: the idea of seeing another enjoy as he enjoys reduces him to a kind of equality with that other, which impairs the unspeakable charm despotism causes him to feel.”
― Marquis de Sade, quote from Justine, Philosophy in the Bedroom, and Other Writings
“If my writing produces angry reactions, then it might also effect a more balanced reflection. These are hard times to get it right, but the easy answers to yesterday’s debate won’t get it right.”
― Lawrence Lessig, quote from Code: Version 2.0
“She looked at her shelves, filled with books in which the bad stuff that happened to people was caused by things like witches who lured people into the woods. In a weird way, the world seemed to make more sense that way.”
― Anne Ursu, quote from Breadcrumbs
“We come to the New Testament, where again a host of imperative verbs is mustered in support of that miserable bondage of free-choice, and the aid of carnal Reason with her inferences and similes is called in, just as in a picture or a dream you might see the King of the flies with his lances of straw and shields of hay arrayed against a real and regular army of seasoned human troops. That is how the human dreams of Diatribe go to war with the battalions of divine words.”
― Martin Luther, quote from The Bondage of the Will
“The word Palestine always brought to my mind a vague suggestion of a country as large as the United States. I do not know why, but such was the case. I suppose it was because I could not conceive of a small country having so large a history.”
― Mark Twain, quote from The Innocents Abroad
“Virtue comes through contemplation of the divine, and the exercise of philosophy. But it also comes through public service. The one is incomplete without the other. Power without wisdom is tyranny; wisdom without power is pointless.”
― Iain Pears, quote from The Dream of Scipio
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