I am curious as to whether anyone knows where this famous quote, attributed to the Marquis de Sade, is originally from:
"Imperious, choleric, irascible, extreme in everything, with a dissolute imagination the like of which has never been seen, atheistic to the point of fanaticism, there you have me in a nutshell, and kill me again or take me as I am, for I shall not change."
I took the quote from the beginning of the English translation of Simone de Beauvoir's essay *Must We Burn Sade?* (1955). I see this quote cited everywhere, perhaps more commonly in the shortened form:
"Either kill me or take me as I am, for I'll be damned if I ever change."
I couldn't find the quote's original source, perhaps because I don't speak a word of French.