Virtue can procure only an imaginary happiness; true felicity lies only in the senses, and virtue gratifies none of them.

Lust's passion will be served; it demands, it militates, it tyrannizes.

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.

I've been to Hell. You've only read about it.

Sex should be a perfect balance of pain and pleasure. Without that symmetry, sex becomes a routine rather than an indulgence.

Can we become other than what we are?

One is never so dangerous when one has no shame, than when one has grown too old to blush.