Denis Diderot's Quotes

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.

Only passions, great passions can elevate the soul to great things.

We swallow greedily any lie that flatters us, but we sip only little by little at a truth we find bitter.

You have to make it happen.

It is very important not to mistake hemlock for parsley, but to believe or not believe in God is not important at all.

The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has killed a great many philosophers.

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 best doctor is the one you run to and can't find.

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.

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.

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.

All abstract sciences are nothing but the study of relations between signs.

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.

From fanaticism to barbarism is only one step.

No man has received from nature the right to command his fellow human beings.

The infant runs toward it with its eyes closed, the adult is stationary, the old man approaches it with his back turned.

Watch out for the fellow who talks about putting things in order! Putting things in order always means getting other people under your control.

Good music is very close to primitive language.

There is only one passion, the passion for happiness.

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!

Every man has his dignity. I'm willing to forget mine, but at my own discretion and not when someone else tells me to.

It is not human nature we should accuse but the despicable conventions that pervert it.

There is no kind of harassment that a man may not inflict on a woman with impunity in civilized societies.

The blood of Jesus Christ can cover a multitude of sins, it seems to me.

The general interest of the masses might take the place of the insight of genius if it were allowed freedom of action.