quote · Legacy record
Once someone asked, when I was present, what constituted the greatest pleasure in love. Someone replied, naturally: in receiving. Another: in giving. Someone said: the pleasure of pride! someone else: the ecstasy of humility! All these muckers making like the Imitation of Christ. Finally, an impudent utopian was found who insisted that the greatest pleasure of love was in forming new citizens for the fatherland. Me, I said: what is uniquely, supremely voluptuous about love lies in the certainty of doing evil.
Once someone asked, when I was present, what constituted the greatest pleasure in love. Someone replied, naturally: in receiving. Another: in giving. Someone said: the pleasure of pride! someone else: the ecstasy of humility! All these muckers making like the Imitation of Christ. Finally, an impudent utopian was found who insisted that the greatest pleasure of love was in forming new citizens for the fatherland. Me, I said: what is uniquely, supremely voluptuous about love lies in the certainty of doing evil.
Approximate author period: c. 1844 AD · industrial
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- Author or tradition
- Charles Baudelaire
Attribution: attributed - Country attributed
- Not established
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- Approximate author period: c. 1844 AD · industrial
Approximate author-period anchor from life dates 1821 to 1867; Wikidata Q501, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q501 (accessed 2026-10-08). Not a quotation composition date.
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Supplied reference C; CSV row 230953; supplied attribution, independently unverified
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