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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.

— Colin Wilson The Origins of the Sexual Impulse (1963)

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More quotes by Colin Wilson

I had never doubted my own abilities, but I was quite prepared to believe that "the world" would decline to recognize them.

Postscript to the Outsider (1967)

What can characterize the Outsider is a sense of strangeness, or unreality.

The Outsider (1956)

The "passion for incredulity" can produce as much self-deception as the uncritical will to believe.

Art is naturally concerned with man in his existential aspect, not in his scientific aspect.

The Strength To Dream (1961)

Faculty X is simply that latent power in human beings possess to reach beyond the present.

The Occult: A History (1971)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Colin Wilson (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.