Humane sentiments are baseless, mad, and improper; they are incredibly feeble; never do they withstand the gainsaying passions, never do they resist bare necessity.
Marquis de SadeCrime is to the passions what nervous fluid is to life: it sustains them, it supplies their strength.
Marquis de SadeFear not lest precautions and protective contrivances diminish your pleasure: mystery only adds thereto.
Marquis de SadeAt all times, in every century, every age, there has been such a connection between despotism and religion that it is infinitely apparent and demonstrated a thousand times over, that in destroying one, the other must be undermined, for the simple reason that the first will always put the law into the service of the second.
Marquis de Sade