Are wars anything but the means whereby a nation is nourished, whereby it is strengthened, whereby it is buttressed?
Marquis de Sade

Happiness is ideal, it is the work of the imagination.
Marquis de Sade

I've already told you: the only way to a woman's heart is along the path of torment. I know none other as sure.
Marquis de Sade

Lust is to the other passions what the nervous fluid is to life; it supports them all, lends strength to them all ambition, cruelty, avarice, revenge, are all founded on lust.
Marquis de Sade

Are not laws dangerous which inhibit the passions? Compare the centuries of anarchy with those of the strongest legalism in any country you like and you will see that it is only when the laws are silent that the greatest actions appear.
Marquis de Sade

Woman's destiny is to be wanton, like the bitch, the she-wolf; she must belong to all who claim her.
Marquis de Sade

"Sex" is as important as eating or drinking and we ought to allow the one appetite to be satisfied with as little restraint or false modesty as the other.
Marquis de Sade

There is no more lively sensation than that of pain; its impressions are certain and dependable, they never deceive as may those of the pleasure women perpetually feign and almost never experience.
Marquis de Sade