87 Quotes by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch

For the time being there is only one alternative: to be the hammer or the anvil.

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?

Whenever the women would talk about their daughters or other girls, about their future or their material prospects, the only thing they'd think of was marriage, the same way people talk about a man's job or office.

   'And you are the first woman I've ever loved,' he continued calmly. 'I love you so much that it makes me suffer, but I'm not suffering because I can't possess you. I'm suffering because it's impossible for me to love you. It tears my heart apart that such a magnificent nature has resulted in such an ugly character.'   

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

   "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.

Am I mad or is she? Does all this arise out of an inventive, wanton woman's brain with the intention of surpassing my supersensual fantasies, or is this woman really one of those Neronian characters who take a diabolical pleasure in treading underfoot, like a worm, human beings, who have thoughts and feelings and a will like theirs?

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.