"The mechanism that directs government cannot be virtuous,……" — Marquis de Sade
"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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Marquis de Sade
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135 Quotes by Marquis de Sade
Marquis de Sade has 135 quotes on this site.
A few more worth reading:
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In an age that is utterly corrupt, the best policy is to do as others do.
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It requires only two things to win credit for a miracle: a mountebank and a number of silly women.
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Hope is the most sensitive part of a poor wretch's soul; whoever raises it only to torment him is behaving…
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The most fortunate of persons is he who has the most means to satisfy his vagaries.
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God strung up his own son like a side of veal. I shudder to think what he would do to…
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One weeps not save when one is afraid, and that is why kings are tyrants.
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Prejudice is the sole author of infamies: how many acts are so qualified by an opinion forged out of naught…
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It is certain that stealing nourishes courage, strength, skill, tact, in a word, all the virtues useful to a republican…
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Any punishment that does not correct, that can merely rouse rebellion in whoever has to endure it, is a piece…
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If Nature denies eternity to beings, it follows that their destruction is one of her laws. Now, once we observe…
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In libertinage, nothing is frightful, because everything libertinage suggests is also a natural inspiration; the most extraordinary, the most bizarre…
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Don't have children: they deform women's bodies and turn into an enemy 20 years later.
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More Active Quotes
This quote is filed under Active Quotes,
one of 1,204 quotes in that category. Here are a few more:
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There are more active volcanoes beneath the sea than on land by two orders of magnitude.
— Robert Ballard
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Science regards man as an aggregation of atoms temporarily united by a mysterious force called the life-principle. To the materialist,…
— Annie Besant
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The mental body, like the astral, varies much in different people; it is composed of coarser or of finer matter,…
— Annie Besant
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Curiosity, n. An objectionable quality of the female mind. The desire to know whether or not a woman is cursed…
— Ambrose Bierce
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Active Evil is better than Passive Good.
— William Blake
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I've always been on the side of science that tries to help man. I play an active part with the…
— Andrea Bocelli
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The traveler was active; he went strenuously in search of people, of adventure, of experience. The tourist is passive; he…
— Daniel J. Boorstin
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As an active member of the Air Force, Army and Mine Warfare Caucuses, I meet with enlisted personnel and officers…
— Allen Boyd
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Fortunately, Iranians are politically active worldwide.
— Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
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Memory in youth is active and easily impressible; in old age it is comparatively callous to new impressions, but still…
— Charlotte Bronte
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When the farmer can sell directly to the consumer, it is a more active process. There's more contact. The consumer…
— Jerry Brown
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We must look for ways to be an active force in our own lives. We must take charge of our…
— Les Brown
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