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Denis Diderot Quotes


Morals are in all countries the result of legislation and government; they are not African or Asian or European: they are good or bad.

My ideas are my whores.

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

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.

Only a very bad theologian would confuse the certainty that follows revelation with the truths that are revealed. They are entirely different things.

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

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.

Patriotism is an ephemeral motive that scarcely ever outlasts the particular threat to society that aroused it.

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.

Pithy sentences are like sharp nails which force truth upon our memory.

Poetry must have something in it that is barbaric, vast and wild.

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.

Sentences are like sharp nails, which force truth upon our memories.

Skepticism is the first step on the road to philosophy.

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

The best mannered people make the most absurd lovers.

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

The decisions of law courts should never be printed: in the long run, they form a counter authority to the law.

The first step towards philosophy is incredulity.

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