Denis Diderot quotes

The God of the Christians is a father who makes much of his apples, and very little of his children. (Denis Diderot)
What a fine comedy this world would be if one did not play a part in it.
Denis Diderot
From fanaticism to barbarism is only one step.
Denis Diderot
Gratitude is a burden, and every burden is made to be shaken off.
Denis Diderot
Skepticism is the first step on the road to philosophy.
Denis Diderot
There are things I can't force. I must adjust. There are times when the greatest change needed is a change of my viewpoint.
Denis Diderot
Doctors are always working to preserve our health and cooks to destroy it, but the latter are the more often successful.
Denis Diderot
There is no moral precept that does not have something inconvenient about it.
Denis Diderot
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!
Denis Diderot
The decisions of law courts should never be printed: in the long run, they form a counter authority to the law.
Denis Diderot
The best doctor is the one you run to and can't find. (Denis Diderot)
There is no good father who would want to resemble our Heavenly Father.
Denis Diderot
Bad company is as instructive as licentiousness. One makes up for the loss of one's innocence with the loss of one's prejudices.
Denis Diderot
Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.
Denis Diderot
We swallow greedily any lie that flatters us, but we sip only little by little at a truth we find bitter.
Denis Diderot
Watch out for the fellow who talks about putting things in order! Putting things in order always means getting other people under your control.
Denis Diderot
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.
Denis Diderot
We are far more liable to catch the vices than the virtues of our associates.
Denis Diderot
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.
Denis Diderot
If you want me to believe in God, you must make me touch him.
Denis Diderot
It is not human nature we should accuse but the despicable conventions that pervert it. (Denis Diderot)
There is only one passion, the passion for happiness.
Denis Diderot
In order to shake a hypothesis, it is sometimes not necessary to do anything more than push it as far as it will go.
Denis Diderot
It is said that desire is a product of the will, but the converse is in fact true: will is a product of desire.
Denis Diderot
Morals are in all countries the result of legislation and government; they are not African or Asian or European: they are good or bad.
Denis Diderot