Georges Bataille

"In previous conditions, extreme states came under the jurisdiction of the arts... People substituted writing (fiction) for what was once spiritual life, poetry (chaotic words) for actual ecstasies. Art constitutes a minor free zone outside action, paying for its freedom by giving up the real world. A heavy price!"

"[Zarathustra] never abandoned the watchword of not having any end, not serving a cause, because, as he knew, causes pluck off the wings we fly with."

"[Nietzsche’s doctrine of the eternal return] is what makes moments caught up in the immanence of return suddenly appear as ends. In every other system, don’t forget, these moments are viewed as means: Every moral system proclaims that “each moment of life ought to be motivated.” Return unmotivates the moment and frees life of ends."

"Human entirety can only be what it is when giving up the addiction to others’ ends."

"To choose evil is to choose freedom—“freedom, emancipation from all restraint.”"

"We can’t rely on anything. Except ourselves. Ludicrous responsibility devolves on us, overwhelms us. In every regard, right up the present, people always have relied on each other—or God."

"All eroticism has a sacramental character."

"Inevitably linked with the moment of climax, there is a minor rupture suggestive of death; and conversely the idea of death may play a part in setting sensuality in motion."

"In der Ordnung der traditionellen Souveränität, deren Prinzip es ist, nicht zu der Welt der Dinge (der Arbeit) zu gehören, entspringt die Würde nicht unmittelbar aus den Dingen sondern aus dem Subjekt."

"Die innere Erfahrung mit der Erotik verlangt von dem, der sie macht, eine nicht weniger große Sensibilität für die Angst, die das Verbot begründet, wie für das Verlangen, das zu seiner Übertretung führt."