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
The impossibility of outraging nature is the greatest anguish man can know.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Nature's indifference can lead to profound human suffering.
This quote suggests that humanity's struggles and sufferings often stem from the realization that they are powerless against the forces of nature. The agony referred to is tied to the conflict between human desires and the unyielding reality of the natural world, highlighting a deep philosophical reflection on our place within it.
Themes
NatureAnguishHuman SufferingPhilosophyPowerlessness
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about the human condition and our relationship with nature, this quote can articulate the struggle of existential despair.
More from Marquis De Sade
All quotes βSo 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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