“We all observe that the reality of sexual intercourse is far from perfect; yet this does not convince us that sex is a greatly overrated occupation. Every time a man glimpses a pretty girl pulling up her stocking, he catches a glimpse of what might be called the "primal sexual vision." It is unfortunate that there seems to be a certain disparity between this primal vision and most ordinary sexual experience. But it dances in front of us like a will-o'-the-wisp, luring us into tormented effort. It can lead novelists to write novels, poets to write poems, and musicians to write symphonies.”

Source: The Misfits: A Study of Sexual Outsiders (1988), p. 39

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "We all observe that the reality of sexual intercourse is far from perfect; yet this does not convince us that sex is a …" by Colin Wilson?
Colin Wilson photo
Colin Wilson 192
author 1931–2013

Related quotes

Laurie Penny photo
James Joyce photo

“Love between man and man is impossible because there must not be sexual intercourse and friendship between man and woman is impossible because there must be sexual intercourse.”

"A Painful Case"
Source: Dubliners (1914)
Context: One of his sentences, written two months after his last interview with Mrs. Sinico, read: Love between man and man is impossible because there must not be sexual intercourse and friendship between man and woman is impossible because there must be sexual intercourse.

Theodor Reuss photo
Colin Wilson photo
Richard Summerbell photo

“All that is required of us, in our "new sexual ethic," is that we have sex in a way that favours us more than it favours our diseases.”

Richard Summerbell (1956) Canadian mycologist

Body Politic, June 1983, reported in Ann Silversides, AIDS activist: Michael Lynch and the Politics of Community (2003), p. 32.

Coventry Patmore photo

“What seems to us for us is true.
The planet has no proper light,
And yet when Venus is in view,
No primal star is half so bright.”

Coventry Patmore (1823–1896) English poet

Book II, Canto I, V Perspective.
The Angel In The House (1854)

Jerzy Vetulani photo

“Sexual intercourse consumes time, requires much effort, absorbs a huge part of energy. But it gives such dose of pleasure, that all of these defects don't matter.”

Jerzy Vetulani (1936–2017) Polish scientist

Vetulani, Jerzy (2008): Mózg, seks i nagrody. Charaktery, 1(5), pp. 41–43 (in Polish).

Premchand photo

Related topics