Marquis de Sade Quotes

I've been fascinated by the idea that evil is the absence of empathy.

Of all the animals, man is the only one that lies.

Truth ... is the sovereign good of human nature.

A white lie is always pardonable. But he who tells the truth without compulsion merits no leniency.

We compromise ourselves the day we are born. If we are looking for the original sin, there it is- our incapacity to live honestly with ourselves because we are human, because we are shackled by custom, by obligations and we accept compromise only in the light of our conscience, answerable as we are only to ourselves.

The tempter or the tempted, who sins most?

All methods are sacred if they are internally necessary. All methods are sins if they are not justified by internal necessity.

The umbrella that I live under is that you must be truthful with everyone except when to do so would injure them or others.

How can you qualify the difference between a sin and a lie.

Although human beings are incapable of talking about themselves with total honesty, it is much harder to avoid the truth while pretending to be other people. They often reveal much about themselves in a very straightforward way. I am certain that I did. There is nothing that says more about its creator than the work itself.

Man is naturally self-centered and he is inclined to regard expediency as the supreme standard for what is right and wrong. However, we must not convert an inclination into an axiom that just as man's perceptions cannot operate outside time and space, so his motivations cannot operate outside expediency; that man can never transcend his own self. The most fatal trap into which thinking may fall is the equation of existence and expediency.

God knows I'm no saint, but I don't think I'm more of a sinner than any other man.

What is the real relation between happiness and goodness? It is only within a few generations that men have found courage to say that there is none.

Man and his deed are two distinct things. Whereas a good deed should call forth approbation and a wicked deed dis-approbation, the doer of the deed, whether good or wicked always deserves respect or pity as the case may be. Hate the sin and not the sinner is a precept which though easy enough to understand is rarely practised, and that is why the poison of hatred spreads in the world.

Lies are essential to humanity.

Mankind thinks either too much or too little of sin.

Evil is a point of view ... God kills, and so shall we; indiscriminately ... for no creatures under God are as we are, none so like Him as ourselves. God kills indiscriminately and so shall we. For no creatures under God are as we are none so like him as ourselves.

You're trying to be tricky. What's morality?" "It's the difference between what's right and what you can rationalize." "Must be a human thing." "Exactly.

There aren't any good guys, and there aren't any bad guys. There's just us. People. Doing our best to get by.

There's no right or wrong just truthful or untruthful.

Few men have depth enough to hear or tell the truth.

Kill a man who needs killing, and sometimes others pay for it. The question is, was it worth doing it anyway? There's always a balance, you know. Good and evil. Light and Shadow. We would not be human if there wasn't a balance.

Please be truthful, but also please be benevolent, please.

The challenge today is to convince people of the value of truth, honesty, compassion and a concern for others.

The Truth An Offense But Not A Sin