Denis Diderot Quotes
There is no true sovereign except the nation; there can be no true legislator except the people.
You can be sure that a painter reveals himself in his work as much as and more than a writer does in his.
And his hands would plait the priest's entrails, For want of a rope, to strangle kings.
The general interest of the masses might take the place of the insight of genius if it were allowed freedom of action.
Patriotism is an ephemeral motive that scarcely ever outlasts the particular threat to society that aroused it.
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.
There is less harm to be suffered in being mad among madmen than in being sane all by oneself.
The bad gives rise to the good, the good inspires the better, the better produces the excellent, the excellent is followed by the bizarre
I am wholly yours - you are everything to me; we will sustain each other in all the ills of life it may please fate to inflict upon us; you will soothe my troubles; I will comfort you in yours.
What has not been examined impartially has not been well examined. Skepticism is therefore the first step towards truth.
La poe sie veutquelque chose d'e norme, debarbare et de sauvage. Poetry needs something on the scale of the grand, the barbarous, the savage.
Are we not madder than those first inhabitants of the plain of Sennar? We know that the distance separating the earth from the sky is infinite, and yet we do not stop building our tower.
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.
There is only one virtue, justice; only one duty, to be happy; only one corollary, not to overvalue life and not to fear death.
In order to shake a hypothesis, it is sometimes not necessary to do anything more than push it as far as it will go.
I have not the hope of being immortal, because the desire of it has not given me that vanity.
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.
Only passions, and great passions, can raise the soul to great things. Without them there is no sublimity, either in morals or in creativity. Art returns to infancy, and virtue becomes small-minded.
Every man has his dignity. I'm willing to forget mine, but at my own discretion and not when someone else tells me to.
Only a very bad theologian would confuse the certainty that follows revelation with the truths that are revealed. They are entirely different things.
Bad company is as instructive as licentiousness. One makes up for the loss of one's innocence with the loss of one's prejudices.
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.
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.
We swallow with one gulp the lie that flatters us, and drink drop by drop the truth which is bitter to us.
Gaiety is a quality of ordinary men. Genius always presupposes some disorder in the machine.
Justice is the first virtue of those who command, and stops the complaints of those who obey.
If a misplaced admiration shows imbecility, an affected criticism shows vice of character. Expose thyself rather to appear a beast than false.
A thing is not proved because no one has ever questioned it... Skepticism is the first step toward truth.
The decisions of law courts should never be printed: in the long run, they form a counter authority to the law.
The God of the Christians is a father who makes much of his apples, and very little of his children.
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.
The pit of a theatre is the one place where the tears of virtuous and wicked men alike are mingled.
