The anguish of the neurotic individual is the same as that of the saint. The neurotic, the saint are engaged in the same battle. Their blood flows from similar wounds. But the first one gasps and the other one gives.
Georges BatailleRead
The fact is, that what de Sade was trying to bring to the surface of the conscious mind was precisely the thing that revolted that mind . . . From the very first he set before the consciousness things which it could not tolerate.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote explores the tension between desire and societal norms, highlighting the discomfort that arises when confronting taboo ideas.
Georges Bataille discusses the provocative nature of the philosopher de Sade's work, suggesting that he aimed to expose the darker and repressed facets of human desire that provoke a strong backlash from society. By bringing these uncomfortable truths into consciousness, de Sade challenges social norms and reveals the limitations of conventional morality, forcing individuals to confront their own desires and the societal taboos surrounding them.
Themes
DesireTabooConsciousnessSocietyMorality
In practice
Example use cases
In a philosophical discussion about the nature of desire and morality.
More from Georges Bataille
All quotes →A judgment about life has no meaning except the truth of the one who speaks last, and the mind is at ease only at the moment when everyone is shouting at once and no one can hear a thing.
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I believe that truth has only one face: that of a violent contradiction.
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What does physical eroticism signify if not a violation of the very being of its practitioners? – A violation bordering on death, bordering on murder?
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It is clear that the world is purely parodic, that each thing seen is the parody of another, or is the same thing in a deceptive form.
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I think that knowledge enslaves us, that at the base of all knowledge there is a servility, the acceptation of a way of life wherein each moment has meaning only in relation to another or others that will follow it.
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