"I do not think that man has much chance of throwing light in the things that terrify him before he has dominated them."
p. 7

"[A]ll eroticism has a sacramental character, but the physical and the emotional are to be met with outside the religious sphere proper, while the quest for continuity of existence systematically pursued beyond the immediate world signifies an essentially religious intention."
pp. 15-16

"Obscenity is our name for the uneasiness which upsets the physical state associated with self-possession, with the possession of a recognized and stable individuality."
p. 18

"Human sexual activity is not necessarily erotic but erotic it is whenever it is not rudimentary and purely animal."
p. 29

"[S]exuality with shame ... gave birth to eroticism ..."
p. 31

"[M]y first words may make the unwary reader think that we have in mind some intellectual adventure and not the ceaseless search which carries the spirit...