Quotes from The Origins of the Sexual Impulse — Colin Wilson
1931–2013 England
← All quotes by Colin Wilson
4 quotes
Nothing is further from sadism, for example, than the cheerful, optimistic mentality of a Shaw or Wells.
The Origins of the Sexual Impulse (1963)
Sexual activity is driven by the same aims and motives as reading poetry or listening to music: to escape the limitations imposed by the need for particularity in the consciousness.
The Origins of the Sexual Impulse (1963)
Sadism is plainly connected with the need for self-assertion. At the same time it cannot be separated from the idea of defeat. A sadist is a man, who, in some sense, has his back to the wall. Nothing is further from sadism, for example, than the cheerful, optimistic mentality of a Shaw or Wells.
The Origins of the Sexual Impulse (1963)
It may seem to be a long way from Blake's innocent talk of love and copulation to De Sade's need to inflict pain. And yet both are the outcome of a sexual mysticism that strives to transcend the everyday world. Simone de Beauvoir said penetratingly of De Sade's work that 'he is trying to communicate an experience whose distinguishing characteristic is, nevertheless its will to remain incommunicable'. De Sade's perversion may have sprung from his dislike of his mother or of other women, but its basis is a kind of distorted religious emotion.
The Origins of the Sexual Impulse (1963)