'Can you achieve good through evil? The strength which sets itself against fate is in fact a weakness. Surrender and acceptance are much stronger. But the Marquis de Sade does not understand that.'
'The Marquis de Sade!' I exclaimed.
'Yes,' Franz Kafka nodded. 'The Marquis de Sade, whose biography you lent me, is the real patron of our era.'
'That isn't really true.'
'Yes. The Marquis de Sade can obtain pleasure only through the sufferings of others, just as the luxury of the rich is paid for by the misery of the poor.'
From Conversations with Kafka by Gustav Janouch.
