Quotes from Leopold von Sacher-Masoch

The Kniaz is a handsome man," said one of her ladies-in-waiting.    "He is handsome and noble," added the Kniahynia, reflecting, "but his hands are awash with blood. The blood of my master, my husband - and a warrior demands revenge! I could love him, if I did not have to hate him with all my heart.

Olha thought that simply murdering her enemies would not be enough to satisfy herself and her people. A true daughter of her time, she was tireless in inventing inhumane tortures for her victims in an effort to see them tortured to death in front of her.

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

There are always such people who begin everything but never finish, and I am such a one.

You have taught me what love is. Your serene form of worship let me forget two thousand years.

What you call cruel," the goddess of love replied eagerly, "is simply the element of passion and of natural love, which is woman's nature and makes her give herself where she loves, and makes her love everything, that pleases her.

I am much worse than a heretic Ã¢â'¬â€œ I am a pagan

You were careless enough to leave me the choice. I choose therefore that you shall be my slave, and I shall make a toy out of you.

if a woman wants to captivate a man forever she must, above all, be unfaithful to him.

I am never angry at anything that is natural—

bleibt nur in eurem nordischen Nebel und christlichem Weihrauch; laßt uns Heiden unter dem Schutt, unter der Lava ruhen, grabt uns nicht aus, für euch wurde Pompeji, für euch wurden unsere Villen, unsere Bäder, unsere Tempel nicht gebaut. Ihr braucht keine Götter! Uns friert in eurer Welt!

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 prickling cruelty: this is truly a modern attitude.

Muž je tím žádajícím, žena tím žádoucím, to je ta celá, ale rozhodující výhoda ženy; pÃ…â"¢íroda jí muže díky jeho váÅ¡ni vydala na pospas, a žena, která si z nÄ›j neumí udÄ›lat svého poddaného, svého otroka, ba svou hra?ku a nakonen jej nedokáže se smíchem zradit, není chytrá.

Cuanto más fácilmente se entrega la mujer, más frío e imperioso es el hombre. Pero cuanto más cruel e infiel le es, cuanto más juega de una manera criminal, cuanta menos piedad le demuestra, más excita sus deseos, más la ama y la desea.

El amor no conoce virtud ni mérito; ama, perdona y lo sufre todo, porque debe; nuestro juicio nada nos sirve para el amor; ni preferencias, ni defectos que descubrimos, provocan nuestra abnegación ni nos hacen retroceder asustados.

To you nature seems something hostile; you have made devils out of the smiling gods of Greece, and out of me a demon. You can only exorcise and curse me, or slay yourselves in bacchantic madness before my altar.

Venus estaba frente a mí, sentada ante una gran chimenea Renacimiento. Esta Venus no era una mujer galante de las que —como Cleopatra— combatieron bajo ese nombre al sexo enemigo. No; era la diosa del amor en persona.

When parents, in the belief that they are doing the right thing, trample underfoot some ideal that lies latent in the heart of their child they cause, more often than not, to germinate in its place disillusionment, hatred, vice; it is fortunate indeed if the existence thus turned awry does not degrade into a life of crime, instead of one of calm content and universal respect.

fratele sãu mai mare, care È™edea cu o carte latineascã sub teiul bãtrân din faÈ›a curÈ›ii parohiale È™i pentru care pãsãrile cântau în zadar, iar soarele îÈ™i risipea fãrã folos aurul topit.

The Baron had become her slave: whatever she demanded of him he carried out with pleasure. When her humour so decreed, he would lie at her feet like a slave..., like a dog!

Whoever was in her presence trembled before her, and the more she made herself feared, the more it delighted her, the more it seemed to make her feel happy.

To see men suffer had become for the former equestrienne a source of sensual delight.

The blows, as you see, have agreed with me; the roseate supersensual mist has dissolved, and no one can ever make me believe that these 'sacred apes of Benares' or Plato's rooster are the image of God

The contempt shown him by Mardona still inflamed his passion, and that passion was nourished by the widespread respect that the Mother of God commanded and the blind obedience she inspired. And it seemed to Sabadil that from her emanated a light that surrounded her. To him, she appeared so beautiful, more beautiful than ever.