Marquis de Sade opts out. Facing the constraints of government and religion, he declares: “it is only by sacrificing everything to the senses’ pleasure that this individual, who never asked to be cast into this universe of woe, that this poor creature who goes under the name of Man, may be able to sow a smattering of roses atop the thorny path of life.” (Sade 185).
Sade is opting out of what he perceives to be a tyrannical order of government and morality. He does not consent “to be cast into this universe of woe.” He exercises his agency and writes “To Libertines” to introduce his erotic instruction and radical political philosophy in La Philosophie dans le boudoir. (Sade 185).
Sade’s universe of woe is life with government and morality; what he craves, instead, is the amoral, anarchic state of nature, and believes that passions are “the means Nature employs to bring man to the ends she prescribes to him” and that “for no voice save that of the passions can conduct you to happiness.” (Sade 185). “To Libertines” is Sade’s declaration of independence in pursuit of happiness.
Thomas Hobbes’ “universe of woe” is a life in nature without government which would be “a warre, as is of every man, against every man” (Hobbes 62). He describes the state of nature:
In such condition there is no place for industry, because the fruit thereof is uncertain, and consequently no culture of the earth, no navigation nor use of the commodities that may be imported by sea, no commodious building, no instruments of moving and removing such things as require much force, no knowledge of the face of the earth, no account of time, no arts, no letters, no society, and which is worst of all, continual fear and danger of violent death, and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short. (Hobbes 62).
Hobbes’ solution, though, is opting in. He believes man must enter a social contract to avoid the savage state of nature. By consent, man should enter a commonwealth:
THE final cause, end, or design of men (who naturally love liberty, and dominion over others) in the introduction of that restraint upon themselves, in which we see them live in Commonwealths, is the foresight of their own preservation, and of a more contented life thereby; that is to say, of getting themselves out from that miserable condition of war which is necessarily consequent, as hath been shown, to the natural passions of men when there is no visible power to keep them in awe, and tie them by fear of punishment to the performance of their covenants… (Hobbes 85).
John Locke, too, opts in. He believes in consent to a social contract because man in nature is “free, equal and independent,” with selfish private property rights from which conflicts will arise. (Locke 220). Creating and consenting to a government is necessary to resolve disputes in a civil way:
The only way whereby any one divests himself of his natural liberty, and puts on the bonds of civil society, is by agreeing with other men to join and unite into a community for their comfortable, safe, and peaceable living one amongst another, in a secure enjoyment of their properties. (Locke 220).
Writing a document entitled a declaration of independence is ipso facto opting out. As Sade has done, Thomas Jefferson, in pursuit of happiness, opts out of a tyrannical order to which he does not consent. Unlike Sade, however, he is not opting out of all order.
In the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson is not advocating an end to all government; he wants “to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness” (Declaration of Independence: A Transcription).
This new government would be authorized by consent: “Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed” (Declaration of Independence: A Transcription).
Thomas Jefferson borrows language from Locke’s Two Treatises of Government when he drafts the Declaration of Independence. Locke’s natural right to defend one’s “life, health, liberty, or possessions” (Locke 222) becomes Jefferson’s right to “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” (Declaration of Independence: A Transcription). Locke’s “long train of abuses” (Locke 433) appears verbatim in Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence before his enumeration of grievances against the king (Declaration of Independence: A Transcription).
“To Libertines” and the Declaration of Independence are avowals of freedom. Although Sade is staking a claim for freedom on behalf of self and Jefferson on behalf of country, both claims are based on agency, consent, the pursuit of happiness, and the ability to opt out– only Jefferson opted in too.
I. Librarian
Works Cited:
Hobbes, Thomas. Leviathan; or, The Matter, Forme, & Power of a Common-Wealth Ecclesiasticall and Civill. Andrew Crooke, 1660.
Locke, John. Two Treatises of Government. Printed for Awnsham Churchill, 1690.
National Archives. Declaration of Independence: A Transcription. National Archives and Records Administration, https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration-transcript. Accessed 22 Apr. 2026.
Sade, Marquis de. Justine, Philosophy in the Bedroom, and Other Writings. Translated by Austryn Wainhouse and Richard Seaver, Grove Press, 1994.
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