Denis Diderot Quotes

133 quotes in 1613 categories

• There is no true sovereign except the nation; there can be no true legislator except the people.
• No man has received from nature the right to give orders to others. Freedom is a gift from heaven, and every individual of the same…
• It is said that desire is a product of the will, but the converse is in fact true: will is a product of desire.
• When we know to read our own hearts, we acquire wisdom of the heartsof others.
• In order to get as much fame as one's father one has to much more able than he.
• There is less harm to be suffered in being mad among madmen than in being sane all by oneself.
• Posterity for the philosopher is what the other world is for the religious man.
• What has not been examined impartially has not been well examined. Skepticism is therefore the first step towards truth.
• 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…
• The world is the house of the strong.
• This root [the potato], no matter how much you prepare it, is tasteless and floury. It cannot pass for an agreeable food, but it supplies…
• To brand man with infamy, and let him free, is an absurdity that peoples our forests with assassins. [Fr., Rendre l'homme infame, et le laisser…
• If you want me to believe in God, you must make me touch him.
• Do you see this egg? With this you can topple every theological theory, every church or temple in the world.
• To be born in imbecility, in the midst of pain and crisis; to be the plaything of ignorance, error, need, sickness, wickedness, and passions; to…
• 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,…
• Distance is a great promoter of admiration
• Scepticism is the first step towards truth.
• Oh! how near are genius and madness! Men imprison them and chain them, or raise statues to them.
• My friend, you should blow out your candle in order to find your way more clearly.

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