Denis Diderot famous quotes
Last updated: Jul 22, 2024
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Only passions, great passions can elevate the soul to great things.
-- Denis Diderot -
I picture the vast realm of the sciences as an immense landscape scattered with patches of dark and light. The goal towards which we must work is either to extend the boundaries of the patches of light, or to increase their number. One of these tasks falls to the creative genius; the other requires a sort of sagacity combined with perfectionism.
-- Denis Diderot -
Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.
-- Denis Diderot -
Skepticism is the first step on the road to philosophy.
-- Denis Diderot -
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All things must be examined, debated, investigated without exception and without regard for anyone's feelings.
-- Denis Diderot -
From fanaticism to barbarism is only one step.
-- Denis Diderot -
We swallow greedily any lie that flatters us, but we sip only little by little at a truth we find bitter.
-- Denis Diderot -
First of all move me, surprise me, rend my heart; make me tremble, weep, shudder; outrage me; delight my eyes afterwards if you can.
-- Denis Diderot -
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There is only one passion, the passion for happiness.
-- Denis Diderot -
A thing is not proved just because no one has ever questioned it. What has never been gone into impartially has never been properly gone into. Hence scepticism is the first step toward truth. It must be applied generally, because it is the touchstone.
-- Denis Diderot -
It is said that desire is a product of the will, but the converse is in fact true: will is a product of desire.
-- Denis Diderot -
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Poetry must have something in it that is barbaric, vast and wild.
-- Denis Diderot -
Doctors are always working to preserve our health and cooks to destroy it, but the latter are the more often successful.
-- Denis Diderot -
A nation which thinks that it is belief in God and not good law which makes people honest does not seem to me very advanced.
-- Denis Diderot -
Every man has his dignity. I'm willing to forget mine, but at my own discretion and not when someone else tells me to.
-- Denis Diderot -
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We swallow with one gulp the lie that flatters us, and drink drop by drop the truth which is bitter to us.
-- Denis Diderot -
There is no kind of harassment that a man may not inflict on a woman with impunity in civilized societies.
-- Denis Diderot -
The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has killed a great many philosophers.
-- Denis Diderot -
There are things I can't force. I must adjust. There are times when the greatest change needed is a change of my viewpoint.
-- Denis Diderot -
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It is very important not to mistake hemlock for parsley, but to believe or not believe in God is not important at all.
-- Denis Diderot -
The best doctor is the one you run to and can't find.
-- Denis Diderot -
At an early age I sucked up the milk of Homer, Virgil, Horace, Terence, Anacreon, Plato and Euripides, diluted with that of Moses and the prophets.
-- Denis Diderot -
But if you will recall the history of our civil troubles, you will see half the nation bathe itself, out of piety, in the blood of the other half, and violate the fundamental feelings of humanity in order to sustain the cause of God: as though it were necessary to cease to be a man in order to prove oneself religious!
-- Denis Diderot -
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As long as the centuries continue to unfold, the number of books will grow continually, and one can predict that a time will come when it will be almost as difficult to learn anything from books as from the direct study of the whole universe. It will be almost as convenient to search for some bit of truth concealed in nature as it will be to find it hidden away in an immense multitude of bound volumes.
-- Denis Diderot -
There are three principal means of acquiring knowledge... observation of nature, reflection, and experimentation. Observation collects facts; reflection combines them; experimentation verifies the result of that combination.
-- Denis Diderot -
Wandering in a vast forest at night, I have only a faint light to guide me. A stranger appears and says to me: 'My friend, you should blow out your candle in order to find your way more clearly.' This stranger is a theologian.
-- Denis Diderot -
We are far more liable to catch the vices than the virtues of our associates.
-- Denis Diderot -
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When superstition is allowed to perform the task of old age in dulling the human temperament, we can say goodbye to all excellence in poetry, in painting, and in music.
-- Denis Diderot -
Genius is present in every age, but the men carrying it within them remain benumbed unless extraordinary events occur to heat up and melt the mass so that it flows forth.
-- Denis Diderot -
There is no true sovereign except the nation; there can be no true legislator except the people.
-- Denis Diderot -
When we know to read our own hearts, we acquire wisdom of the heartsof others.
-- Denis Diderot -
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The blood of Jesus Christ can cover a multitude of sins, it seems to me.
-- Denis Diderot
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