Leopold von Sacher-Masoch Quotes

Leopold Ritter von Sacher-Masoch was an Austrian writer and journalist, who gained renown for his romantic stories of Galician life. The term masochism is derived from his name.

During his lifetime, Sacher-Masoch was well known as a man of letters, a utopian thinker who espoused socialist and humanist ideals in his fiction and non-fiction. Most of his works remain untranslated into English. Until recently, his novel Venus in Furs was his only book commonly available in English, but an English translation by William Holmes of Die Gottesmutter was released in 2015 as The Mother of God.

✵ 27. January 1836 – 9. March 1895   •   Other names Leopold Ritter von Sacher-Masoch, Լեոպոլդ ֆոն Զախեր Մազոխ
Leopold von Sacher-Masoch photo

Works

Venus in Furs
Venus in Furs
Leopold von Sacher-Masoch
Leopold von Sacher-Masoch: 10   quotes 2   likes

Famous Leopold von Sacher-Masoch Quotes

“The moral of the tale is this: whoever allows himself to be whipped,
deserves to be whipped.”

Source: Venus in Furs (1870)
Context: "And the moral of the story?" I said to Severin when I put the manuscript down on the table.
"That I was a donkey," he exclaimed without turning around, for he seemed to be embarrassed. "If only I had beaten her!"
"A curious remedy," I exclaimed, "which might answer with your peasant-women-"
"Oh, they are used to it," he replied eagerly, "but imagine the effect upon one of our delicate, nervous, hysterical ladies--"
"But the moral?"
"That woman, as nature has created her and as man is at present educating her, is his enemy. She can only be his slave or his despot, but never his companion. This she can become only when she has the same rights as he, and is his equal in education and work."
"At present we have only the choice of being hammer or anvil, and I was the kind of donkey who let a woman make a slave of him, do you understand?"
"The moral of the tale is this: whoever allows himself to be whipped, deserves to be whipped."

Leopold von Sacher-Masoch Quotes

“You are cold, while you yourself fan flames.”

Source: Venus in Furs

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