Be then my slave, and know what it means to be delivered into the hands of a woman.

It is merely the egoism of the man, who wants to bury a woman like a treasure. All attempts at using vows, contracts, and holy ceremonies have failed to bring permanence into the most changeable aspect of changeable human existence, namely love.

Love knows no virtue, no merit; it loves and forgives and tolerates everything because it must. We are not guided by reason.

If I can't enjoy the full and total happiness of love, then I want to drain its torments, its tortures to the dregs; then I want the woman I love to mistreat me, betray me, and the more cruelly the better. That too is a pleasure.

Why become well-versed in science and the arts if not to impress a lovely little woman?

Every woman has the instinct, the propensity to profit from her charms, and there's a lot to be said for giving oneself without love, without pleasure.

The struggle of the spirit against the senses is the gospel of modern man. I do not wish to have any part in it.