Sunday, April 25, 2010

Marquid de Sade

My manner of thinking, so you say, cannot be approved. Do you suppose I care? A poor fool indeed is he who adopts a manner of thinking for others! My manner of thinking stems straight from my considered reflections; it holds with my existence, the way I am made. It is not in my power to alter it, and were it, I would not do so. This manner of thinking you find fault with is my sole consolation in life; it alleviates all my sufferings in prison, it composes all my pleasures in the world outside, it is dearer to me than life itself. Not my manner of thinking, but the manner of thinking of others has been the source of my unhappiness. The reasoning man who scorns the prejudices of simpletons necessarily becomes the enemy of simpletons; he must expect as much and laugh at the inevitable. A traveller journeys along a fine road. It has been strewn with traps. He falls in to one. Do you say it is the traveller’s fault, or that of the scoundrel who lays the traps? If then, as you tell me, they are willing to restore my liberty if I am willing to pay for it by the sacrifice of my principles or tastes; we may bid one another an eternal adieu. For rather than part with those, I would sacrifice a thousand lives and a thousand liberties, if I had them. These principles and these tastes, I am their fanatic adherent; and fanaticism in me is the product of all the persecutions that I have endured from my tyrants. The longer they continue their vexations, the deeper they root my principles in my heart, and I openly declare that no one need ever talk to me of liberty, if it is offered to me only in return of their destruction.

- Marquis de Sade, in a letter to his wife.

1 comment:

Ojas said...

This is amazing piece of writing - I think we talked about this sometime during our Kerala trip.

On another note, I think this weblog is a place where *you* should write! Will look forward to it.