Léonore S Story Quotes

“One of the keenest pleasures of this monstrous prince, which arouses him most vigorously, is to have every offender he can snare impaled before his eyes without distinction as to age or sex. Standing at an open palace window, 15 or 20 feet from the place of execution, surrounded by women, he enjoys in fine comfort the cruel pleasure of watching victims suffer.”
― Marquis de Sade, Aline and Valcour, or, the Philosophical Novel, Vol. III

“Duval's fresh impudence made me realize that if I'd changed masters after being nearly taken into a Turk's harem, now I was in a Frenchman's home on a footing not much different. Into whomsoever's hands a woman of my age might fall, the risks were pretty much the same.”
― Marquis de Sade, Aline and Valcour, or, the Philosophical Novel, Vol. III

“   "I'm infinitely less afraid," she told me one night, "of serving this monster's pleasures than being his main course at dinner."
   "Not me! I'd prefer a thousand times to be eaten than satisfy his disgraceful lust."
   "Don't you think that's taking virtue too far?"
   "No, it's only to cherish the man I love."
   "When things calm down a little, you'll explain to me such délicatesse. I still don't understand it."   ”
― Marquis de Sade, Aline and Valcour, or, the Philosophical Novel, Vol. III

“If you'll permit me, the distance that separates debauchery from impiety is far greater than that between debauchery and religious superstition. One does what one likes when safe from reproach under the mantle of religion; but the woman who loves virtue for its own sake and serves it because it inflames her heart, who's brazen and bares her soul—she'll be seen rushing headlong to commit errors she can't hide.”
― Marquis de Sade, Aline and Valcour, or, the Philosophical Novel, Vol. III

“He ravished the honor of the woman he had just shorn of life.”
― Marquis de Sade, Aline and Valcour, or, the Philosophical Novel, Vol. III

“If really wise, a man should unquestionably prefer a libertine for a spouse than a woman who's only served modesty; and he should stop thinking that such modesty, treasured only by ugly women, is worth a whit to anybody else.”
― Marquis de Sade, Aline and Valcour, or, the Philosophical Novel, Vol. III

“Clémentine viewed good deeds as trickery; sensitivity, a weakness from which we must protect ourselves; modesty, an error that always disadvantages the charms of one who's pretty; sincerity, an idiocy that makes a fool; humility, an absurdity; temperance, a deprivation for the best years of one's life; and religion, laughable hypocrisy.”
― Marquis de Sade, Aline and Valcour, or, the Philosophical Novel, Vol. III