My passions, concentrated on a single point, resemble the rays of a sun assembled by a magnifying glass: they immediately set fire to whatever object they find in their way.
Marquis De SadeRead
Chimerical and empty being, your name alone has caused more blood to flow on the face of the earth than any political war ever will. Return to the nothingness from which the mad hope and ridiculous fright of men dared call you forth to their misfortune. You only appeared as a torment for the human race. What crimes would have been spared the world, if they had choked the first imbecile who thought of speaking of you.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote critiques the concept of abstract ideals that lead to suffering and conflict among humanity.
Marquis De Sade's quote reflects a deep disdain for the chaos that abstract ideas and ideals can bring to the world. He argues that these chimerical notions incite conflict and bloodshed, suggesting that if humanity had rejected these dangerous ideas at their inception, many tragedies and crimes could have been avoided. The speaker illustrates that such concepts, often revered or sought after, are illusions that distract and torment human beings rather than provide any genuine benefit or truth.
Themes
IdealsSufferingChaosCritiquePhilosophy
In practice
Example use cases
In a debate about the impact of ideology on society, one might invoke this quote to emphasize the dangers of dogmatism.
More from Marquis De Sade
All quotes →So long as the laws remain such as they are today, employ some discretion: loud opinion forces us to do so; but in privacy and silence let us compensate ourselves for that cruel chastity we are obliged to display in public.
Marquis De SadeRead
Happiness is an abstraction, it is a product of the imagination, it is a way of being moved, which depends entirely on our way of seeing and feeling.
Marquis De SadeRead
Are your convictions so fragile that mine cannot stand in opposition to them? Is your God so illusory that the presence of my Devil reveals his insufficiency?
Marquis De SadeRead
The mechanism that directs government cannot be virtuous, because it is impossible to thwart every crime, to protect oneself from every criminal without being criminal too; that which directs corrupt mankind must be corrupt itself; and it will never be by means of virtue, virtue being inert and passive, that you will maintain control over vice, which is ever active: the governor must be more energetic than the governed.
Marquis De SadeRead
Prejudice is the sole author of infamies: how many acts are so qualified by an opinion forged out of naught but prejudice!
Marquis De SadeRead
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