The sovereign being is burdened with a servitude that crushes him, and the condition of free men is deliberate servility. – Georges Bataille
Sanity is the lot of those who are most obtuse, for lucidity destroys ones equilibrium: it is unhealthy to honestly endure the labors of the mind which incessantly contradict what they have just established. – Georges Bataille
Pleasure only starts once the worm has got into the fruit, to become delightful happiness must be tainted with poison. – Georges Bataille
Life has always taken place in a tumult without apparent cohesion, but it only finds its grandeur and its reality in ecstasy and in ecstatic love. – Georges Bataille
Slavery is so intolerable a condition that the slave can hardly escape deluding himself into thinking that he is choosing to obey his masters commands when, in fact, he is obliged to. Most slaves of habit suffer from this delusion and so do some writers, enslaved by an all too personal style. – W. H. Auden