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Denis Diderot [1713-1784] French

Rank: 101
Editor, Philosopher

Denis Diderot was a French philosopher, art critic, and writer. He was a prominent figure during the Enlightenment and is best known for serving as co-founder, chief editor, and contributor to the Encyclopédie along with Jean le Rond d'Alembert.

Nature, Poetry, Power, Truth, Age, Art, Change, Faith, Freedom, Great, Happiness, Knowledge, Love, Marriage, Medical, Motivational, Music, Patriotism, Religion, Science

Quote	Tags	Rank
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.	Knowledge, Nature	101
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.	Age, Music, Poetry	102
To attempt the destruction of our passions is the height of folly. What a noble aim is that of the zealot who tortures himself like a madman in order to desire nothing, love nothing, feel nothing, and who, if he succeeded, would end up a complete monster!	Love	103
Only passions, great passions can elevate the soul to great things.	Great	104
Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.	Freedom	105
We swallow greedily any lie that flatters us, but we sip only little by little at a truth we find bitter.	Truth	106
There are things I can't force. I must adjust. There are times when the greatest change needed is a change of my viewpoint.	Change	107
You have to make it happen.	Motivational	108
When science, art, literature, and philosophy are simply the manifestation of personality they are on a level where glorious and dazzling achievements are possible, which can make a man's name live for thousands of years.	Art, Science	109
Pithy sentences are like sharp nails which force truth upon our memory.	Truth	110
No man has received from nature the right to command his fellow human beings.	Nature, Power	111
Every man has his dignity. I'm willing to forget mine, but at my own discretion and not when someone else tells me to.		112
The best doctor is the one you run to and can't find.	Medical	113
There is only one passion, the passion for happiness.	Happiness	114
Skepticism is the first step on the road to philosophy.		115
The blood of Jesus Christ can cover a multitude of sins, it seems to me.		116
There is no kind of harassment that a man may not inflict on a woman with impunity in civilized societies.		117
The God of the Christians is a father who makes much of his apples, and very little of his children.		118
The possibility of divorce renders both marriage partners stricter in their observance of the duties they owe to each other. Divorces help to improve morals and to increase the population.	Marriage	119
Justice is the first virtue of those who command, and stops the complaints of those who obey.		120
Although a man may wear fine clothing, if he lives peacefully; and is good, self-possessed, has faith and is pure; and if he does not hurt any living being, he is a holy man.	Faith	121
Evil always turns up in this world through some genius or other.		122
The first step towards philosophy is incredulity.		123
Good music is very close to primitive language.		124
The best mannered people make the most absurd lovers.		125
It is not human nature we should accuse but the despicable conventions that pervert it.		126
The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has killed a great many philosophers.		201
It is very important not to mistake hemlock for parsley, but to believe or not believe in God is not important at all.		202
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.	Power	203
All abstract sciences are nothing but the study of relations between signs.		204
If you want me to believe in God, you must make me touch him.		205
From fanaticism to barbarism is only one step.		206
Gratitude is a burden, and every burden is made to be shaken off.		207
Disturbances in society are never more fearful than when those who are stirring up the trouble can use the pretext of religion to mask their true designs.	Religion	208
Bad company is as instructive as licentiousness. One makes up for the loss of one's innocence with the loss of one's prejudices.		209
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.		210
Patriotism is an ephemeral motive that scarcely ever outlasts the particular threat to society that aroused it.	Patriotism	211
There is no moral precept that does not have something inconvenient about it.		212
It is said that desire is a product of the will, but the converse is in fact true: will is a product of desire.		213
The decisions of law courts should never be printed: in the long run, they form a counter authority to the law.		214
Morals are in all countries the result of legislation and government; they are not African or Asian or European: they are good or bad.		215
In order to shake a hypothesis, it is sometimes not necessary to do anything more than push it as far as it will go.		216
We are far more liable to catch the vices than the virtues of our associates.		217
His hands would plait the priest's guts, if he had no rope, to strangle kings.		218
We are all instruments endowed with feeling and memory. Our senses are so many strings that are struck by surrounding objects and that also frequently strike themselves.		219
Our observation of nature must be diligent, our reflection profound, and our experiments exact. We rarely see these three means combined; and for this reason, creative geniuses are not common.		220
Gaiety is a quality of ordinary men. Genius always presupposes some disorder in the machine.		221
Watch out for the fellow who talks about putting things in order! Putting things in order always means getting other people under your control.		222
The infant runs toward it with its eyes closed, the adult is stationary, the old man approaches it with his back turned.		223
Poetry must have something in it that is barbaric, vast and wild.	Poetry	224
The pit of a theatre is the one place where the tears of virtuous and wicked men alike are mingled.		225
The general interest of the masses might take the place of the insight of genius if it were allowed freedom of action.		226
One declaims endlessly against the passions; one imputes all of man's suffering to them. One forgets that they are also the source of all his pleasures.		301
Only a very bad theologian would confuse the certainty that follows revelation with the truths that are revealed. They are entirely different things.		302
There is no good father who would want to resemble our Heavenly Father.		303
If there is one realm in which it is essential to be sublime, it is in wickedness. You spit on a petty thief, but you can't deny a kind of respect for the great criminal.		304
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.		305

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