25 quotes
Theft is only punished because it violates the right of property; but this right is itself nothing in origin but theft.
Juliette (1797)
A person must have lost his mind to believe in God.
Philosophy in the Bedroom (1795)
Fear and ignorance, you will continue, are two mainstays of any and all religions.
Philosophy in the Bedroom (1795)
Benevolence is more a vice of pride than a true virtue of the soul.
Philosophy in the Bedroom (1795)
Modesty is an old-fashioned virtue, which, given your charms, you must certainly do without.
Philosophy in the Bedroom (1795)
The law which attempts a man's life [capital punishment] is impractical, unjust, inadmissible. It has never repressed crime—for a second crime is every day committed at the foot of the scaffold.
Philosophy in the Bedroom (1795)
Never will a free man bow to the gods of Christianity; never will its dogmas, never will its rites, never its mysteries, never its morals be suitable for a republican.
Philosophy in the Bedroom (1795)
After demonstrating that theism is unsuitable for a republican government, I find it crucial to prove that French morals are likewise inappropriate.
Philosophy in the Bedroom (1795)
The Duke soon imitated his old friend's little infamy and wagered that, enormous as Invictus' prick might be, he could calmly down three bottles of wine while lying embuggered upon it.
The 120 Days of Sodom (1785)
Lewd women, let the voluptuous Saint-Ange be your model; after her example, be heedless of all that contradicts pleasure's divine laws, by which all her life she was enchained.
Philosophy in the Bedroom (1795)
Why do you complain of your fate when you could so easily change it?
Justine or The Misfortunes of Virtue (1787)
Oh, you, who are clutching the sickle, give the tree of superstition its final stroke. Do not be content with hacking off the branches. Tear out by its roots a plant with such noxious effects.
Philosophy in the Bedroom (1795)
Nothing we can do outrages Nature directly. Our acts of destruction give her new vigour and feed her energy, but none of our wreckings can weaken her power.
Justine or The Misfortunes of Virtue (1787)
Let us leave off believing that religion can be useful to man. Instead, let us have good laws, and we can then do without religion.
Philosophy in the Bedroom (1795)
Survey the histories of all nations. You will never see them exchange their form of government for a monarchy, given their gradation by superstition; you will always see kings supporting religion, and religion supporting kings.
Philosophy in the Bedroom (1795)
No act of possession can be exercised on a free being; it is as unjust to own a wife monogamously as it is to own slaves. All men are born free, all are equal before the law; we must never lose sight of these principles. Hence, no sex is granted the legitimate right to seize the other sex exclusively, and never can any sex or any class possess the other arbitrarily.
Philosophy in the Bedroom (1795)
Those laws, being forged for universal application, are in perpetual conflict with personal interest, just as personal interest is always in contradiction with the general interest. Good for society, our laws are very bad for the individuals whereof it is composed; for, if they one time protect the individual, they hinder, trouble, fetter him for three quarters of his life.
The Duc, pike aloft, closed in upon Augustine; he brayed, he swore, he waxed unreasonable, and the poor little thing, all atremble, retreated like a dove before the bird of prey ready to pounce upon it.
The 120 Days of Sodom (1785)
Our four libertines, half-drunk but nonetheless resolved to abide their laws, contented themselves with kisses, fingerings, but their libertine intelligence knew how to season these mild activities with all the refinements of debauch and lubricity.
The 120 Days of Sodom (1785)
You young maidens, too long constrained by a fanciful Virtue's absurd and dangerous bonds and by those of a disgusting religion, imitate the fiery Eugénie; be as quick as she to destroy, to spurn all those ridiculous precepts inculcated in you by imbecile parents.
Philosophy in the Bedroom (1795)