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
Hope is the most sensitive part of a poor wretch's soul; whoever raises it only to torment him is behaving like the executioners in Hell who, they say, incessantly renew old wounds and concentrate their attention on that area of it that is already lacerated.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Hope can be a fragile thing, and to manipulate or tease it can cause deep emotional pain.
In this quote, Marquis De Sade highlights the delicate nature of hope within those who are suffering. He compares the act of raising hope only to dash it against reality to the cruel actions of executioners who continually inflict pain on their victims. This illustrates the ethical responsibility one has when dealing with the hopes and dreams of the vulnerable, emphasizing that to play with hope is to cause great harm.
Themes
HopePainSadnessSufferingEthics
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about mental health, one could use this quote to emphasize the importance of handling people's hopes carefully.
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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