Chimerical and empty being, your name alone has caused more blood to flow on the face of the earth than any political war ever will. Return to the nothingness from which the mad hope and ridiculous fright of men dared call you forth to their misfortune. You only appeared as a torment for the human race. What crimes would have been spared the world, if they had choked the first imbecile who thought of speaking of you.

Alternating title usage indicates that titular hierarchy (below duc et pair) was notional; theoretically the marquis title was granted to noblemen owning several countships but its use by men of dubious lineage caused its disrepute. He was arrested there and imprisoned in the Château de Vincennes. Similarly Camille Paglia argued that Sade can be best understood as a satirist responding "point by point" to Rousseau's claims that society inhibits and corrupts mankind's innate goodness: Sade wrote in the aftermath of the French Revolution when Rousseauist Jacobins instituted the bloody Reign of Terror.

Donatien Alphonse François Marquis de Sade (French: [maʁki də sad]; 2 June 1740 – 2 December 1814) was a French aristocrat revolutionary politician philosopher and writer famous for his libertine sexuality and lifestyle. He was a proponent of extreme freedom unrestrained by morality religion or law. During the French Revolution he was an elected delegate to the National Convention.