Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.
~ H.l. Mencken
The important task of literature is to free man, not to censor him, and that is why Puritanism was the most destructive and evil force which ever oppressed people and their literature: it created hypocrisy, perversion, fears, sterility.
~ Anaïs Nin
Absolute virtue is impossible and the republic of forgiveness leads, with implacable logic, to the republic of the guillotine.
~ Albert Camus
Sex: In America an obsession. In other parts of the world a fact.
~ Marlene Dietrich
The enemy for the fanatic is pleasure, which makes it extremely important to continue to indulge in pleasure. Dance madly. That is how you get rid of terrorism.
~ Salman Rushdie
Nothing evokes the prurient like puritanism.
~ Christopher Moore
