Quotes by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch

“So, Wanda cried, a woman in furs is nothing more than a large cat, a charged electric battery?”

“You view love and especially women...as something hostile, something against which you defend yourself, although in vain, something whose power over you, however, you feel as a sweet torment, a pri...”

“It is merely the egoism of men, who wants to bury a woman like a treasure. All attempts at using vows, contracts, and holy ceremonies have failed to bring permanence into the most changeable aspect...”

“You have corrupted my imagination and inflamed my blood...”

“Alas, woman is faithful as long as she loves, but you demand that she be faithful without love and give herself without enjoyment. Who is cruel then, woman or man?”

“Work on." Work as if every time you started with and every time you finish.”

“It is only man's egoism that wants to keep woman like some buried treasure.”

“We are faithful as long as we love, but youdemand faithfulness of a woman without love, and the giving ofherself without enjoyment. Who is cruel there--woman or man?”

“I love her passionately with a morbid intensity; madly as one can only love a woman who never responds to our love with anything but an eternally uniform, eternally calm, stony smile.”

“That love, which is the highest joy, which is divine simplicity itself, is not for you moderns, you children of reflection. It works only evil in you. As soon as you wish to be natural, you becomec...”

“You look at love, and especially woman, as something hostile, something against which you put up a defense, even if unsuccessfully. You feel that their power over you gives you a sensation of pleas...”

“Yet I am not writing with ordinary ink, but with red blood that dripsfrom my heart. All its wounds long scarred over have opened and itthrobs and hurts, and now and then a tear falls on the paper.”

“The moral of the tale is this: whoever allows himself to be whipped,deserves to be whipped.”

“You of the North in general take love too soberly and seriously. You talk of duties where there should be only a question of pleasure.”

“The real comic muse is the one underwhose laughing mask tears roll down.”

“I really believe," said Wanda thoughtfully,"that your madness is nothing but a demonic, unsatisfied sensuality. Our unnatural way of life must generate such illnesses. Were you less virtuous, you w...”

“My husband's personality was filled with serenity and sunlight. Not even the incurable illness which fell upon him soon after our marriage could long cloud his brow. On the very night of his death ...”

“So,” Wanda cried, “a woman in furs is nothing more than a large cat, a charged electric battery?”

“And the moral of the story? I said to Severin when I put the manuscript down on the table.That I was a donkey, he exclaimed without turning around, for he seemed to be embarrassed. If only I had be...”