Memorable Quotations from The Marquis de Sade

Donatien Alphonse François, comte de Sade (1740–1814) was a French author known as The Marquis de Sade. Charged with several sexual offenses, he spent 27 years in prisons or asylums, writing lewd romances, including Justine (1791). He hypothesized that since sexual deviation and criminal acts exist in nature they are natural; this notion foreshadowed modern psychological thought. Sadism, the infliction of pain to achieve sexual pleasure, is named for him.