The imagination serves us only when the mind is absolutely free of any prejudice. A single prejudice suffices to cool off the imagination. This whimsical part of the mind is so unbridled as to be uncontrollable. Its greatest triumphs, its most eminent delights consist in smashing all the restraints that oppose it. Imagination is the enemy of all norms, the idolater of all disorder and of all that bears the color of crime.
custom freedom freedom-of-thought imagination intellect social-norms tradition

About This Quote

About Marquis de Sade

Marquis de Sade was a 18th-century French writer and nobleman. Donatien Alphonse François, Marquis de Sade was a French writer, libertine, political activist, and nobleman best known for his libertine novels and imprisonment for sex crimes, blasphemy, and pornography. His works include novels, short stories, plays, dialogues, and political tracts. Read more on Wikipedia →

Themes

  • Freedom — The value of liberty, independence, and self-determination
  • Imagination — The creative power of the mind and visionary thinking

More quotes by Marquis de Sade

“Let us give ourselves indiscriminately to everything our passions suggest, and we will always be happyConscience is not the voice of Nature but only the voice of prejudice.”
— Marquis de Sade
conscience nature passions

“Fuck! Is one expected to be a gentleman when one is stiff?”
— Marquis de Sade
humor sadism sex

“The man who alters his way of thinking to suit others is a fool.”
— Marquis de Sade
philosophy

“To judge from the notions expounded by theologians, one must conclude that God created most men simply with a view to crowding hell.”
— Marquis de Sade
atheism god religion

“There is no God, Nature sufficeth unto herself; in no wise hath she need of an author.”
— Marquis de Sade
god nature

“Anything beyond the limits and grasp of the human mind is either illusion or futility; and because your god having to be one or the other of the two, in the first instance I should be mad to believ...”
— Marquis de Sade
atheism god religion
View all quotes by Marquis de Sade →

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