Denis Diderot Quotes
Top 100 wise famous quotes and sayings by Denis Diderot
Denis Diderot Famous Quotes & Sayings
Discover top inspirational quotes from Denis Diderot on Wise Famous Quotes.
The general interest of the masses might take the place of the insight of genius if it were allowed freedom of action.
First move me, astonish me, break my heart, let me tremble, weep, stare, be enraged-only then regale my eyes.
The Christian religion teaches us to imitate a God that is cruel, insidious, jealous, and implacable in his wrath.
Anyone who takes it upon himself, on his private authority, to break a bad law, thereby authorizes everyone else to break the good ones.
Doctors are always working to preserve our health and cooks to destroy it, but the latter are the more often successful.
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.
It is raining bombs on the house of the Lord. I go in fear and trembling lest one of these terrible bombers gets into difficulties.
Instinct guides the animal better than the man. In the animal it is pure, in man it is led astray by his reason and intelligence.
In order to shake a hypothesis, it is sometimes not necessary to do anything more than push it as far as it will go.
To say that man is a compound of strength and weakness, light and darkness, smallness and greatness, is not to indict him, it is to define him.
Monsignor ... you are asking whether I promise God chastity, poverty, and obedience. I heard what you said and my answer is no
Nothing is duller than a progression of common chords. One wants some contrast, which breaks up the clear white light and makes it iridescent.
People praise virtue, but they hate it, they run away from it. It freezes you to death, and in this world you've got to keep your feet warm.
Jacques said that his master said that everything good or evil we encounter here below was written on high.
There is no kind of harassment that a man may not inflict on a woman with impunity in civilized societies.
First of all move me, surprise me, rend my heart; make me tremble, weep, shudder; outrage me; delight my eyes afterwards if you can.
All things must be examined, debated, investigated without exception and without regard for anyone's feelings.
The best order of things, as I see it, is the one that includes me; to hell with the most perfect of worlds, if I'm not part of it.
If there are one hundred thousand damned souls for one saved soul, the devil has always the advantage without having given up his son to death.
Whether God exists or does not exist, He has come to rank among the most sublime and useless truths.
A thing is not proved because no one has ever questioned it ... Skepticism is the first step toward truth.
The bad gives rise to the good, the good inspires the better, the better produces the excellent, the excellent is followed by the bizarre
If a misplaced admiration shows imbecility, an affected criticism shows vice of character. Expose thyself rather to appear a beast than false.
Do you see this egg? With this you can topple every theological theory, every church or temple in the world.
Patriotism is an ephemeral motive that scarcely ever outlasts the particular threat to society that aroused it.
Morals are in all countries the result of legislation and government; they are not African or Asian or European: they are good or bad.
The enjoyment of freedom which could be exercised without any motivation would be the real hallmark of a maniac.
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.
Power acquired by violence is only a usurpation, and lasts only as long as the force of him who commands prevails over that of those who obey.
The God of the Christians is a father who makes much of his apples, and very little of his children.
If ever anybody dedicated his whole life to the "enthusiasm for truth and justice" using this phrase in the good sense it was Diderot.
It is very important not to mistake hemlock for parsley; but not at all so to believe or not in God.
Watch out for the fellow who talks about putting things in order! Putting things in order always means getting other people under your control.
You can be sure that a painter reveals himself in his work as much as and more than a writer does in his.
What has not been examined impartially has not been well examined. Skepticism is therefore the first step towards truth.
There are things I can't force. I must adjust. There are times when the greatest change needed is a change of my viewpoint.
The infant runs toward it with its eyes closed, the adult is stationary, the old man approaches it with his back turned.
Shakespeare's fault is not the greatest into which a poet may fall. It merely indicates a deficiency of taste.
Which is the greater merit, to enlighten the human race, which remains forever, or to save one's fatherland, which is perishable?