From: Mr. F. Le Mur <flemur 13013@yahoo.com>
Newsgroups: alt.slack,alt.binaries.slack
On Thu, 14 Jul 2005 13:06:39 -0400, "Rev. Ivan
Stang"
<stang@subgeniusNOSPUM.com> wrote:
>It'll be on SubSITE in like an hour.
"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, with the way I am made. It is not in my power
to alter it; and were it, I'd 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 laughs at
the
inevitable. A traveler journeys along a fine road. It
has
been strewn with traps. He falls into one. Do you say
it
is the traveler'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 my 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 the persecutions 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 for their destruction." - M. de
Sade