Marquis de Sade — "The only true crime is to deny oneself pleasure."
The only true crime is to deny oneself pleasure.
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More from Marquis de Sade
"To judge from the notions expounded by theologians, one must conclude that God created most men simply with a view to crowding hell."
"The greatest pleasure is to defy God."
"My only pleasure is to do what is forbidden."
"The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it."
"The only happiness we can enjoy is that which we procure for ourselves at the expense of others."
About Marquis de Sade (1740-1814)
French aristocrat-libertine whose name became 'sadism' and whose novels test the limits of Enlightenment liberalism's 'do as you will' axiom. Closely associated with Pierre Choderlos de Laclos (Les Liaisons dangereuses author). For an intellectual contrast, see Immanuel Kant, German Enlightenment philosopher of the categorical imperative — Sade and Kant published in the same decades; Kant's 'treat others as ends, never means' is the systematic ethical opposite of Sade's libertine instrumentalism — the two roads philosophy took out of Enlightenment freedom.
The standard scholarly entry points to Marquis de Sade's work: Maurice Blanchot (French literary critic) — Lautréamont and Sade (1949); Jacques Lacan (École freudienne de Paris) — Kant with Sade (1963 essay); Camille Paglia (University of the Arts Philadelphia) — Sexual Personae (1990) — extensive Sade chapters. These are the works graduate seminars cite when teaching Marquis de Sade.