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The impossibility of outraging nature is the greatest anguish man can know.
Marquis De Sade
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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

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.
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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?
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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.
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Prejudice is the sole author of infamies: how many acts are so qualified by an opinion forged out of naught but prejudice!
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