Denis Diderot quotes - page 4

Shakespeare's fault is not the greatest into which a poet may fall. It merely indicates a deficiency of taste. (Denis Diderot)
One may demand of me that I should seek truth, but not that I should find it. View quote
Denis Diderot
When one compares the talents one has with those of a Leibniz, one is tempted to throw away one's books and go die quietly in the dark of some forgotten corner. View quote
Denis Diderot
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. View quote
Denis Diderot
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 species has the right to enjoy it as soon as he is in enjoyment of his reason. View quote
Denis Diderot
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, you should blow out your candle in order to find your way more clearly." This stranger is a theologian. - Number VIII. View quote
Denis Diderot
Only passions, great passions can elevate the soul to great things. View quote
Denis Diderot
Impenetrable in their dissimulation, cruel in their vengeance, tenacious in their purposes, unscrupulous as to their methods, animated by profound and hidden hatred for the tyranny of man -- it is as though there exists among them an ever-present conspiracy toward domination, a sort of alliance like that subsisting among the priests of every country. View quote
Denis Diderot
Do you see this egg With this you can topple every theological theory, every church or temple in the world. View quote
Denis Diderot
Time, matter, space - all, it may be, are no more than a point. View quote
Denis Diderot
I am beginning to feel that I am growing old; soon, I shall have to eat mush like children. I shall no longer be able to speak, which will be a rather great advantage for others and but a small inconvenience for myself.... The time in which I count in years is gone; that in which I count in days is here.... I had thought that the fibers of the heart would grow callous with age, it's not at all the case. I am not sure that my sensitivity hasn't increased; everything moves me, affects me.... To fade out between a man feeling your pulse and another bothering your head; not to know where one comes from, why one came, where one is going ... (Denis Diderot)
[Africans are] always vicious... mostly inclined to lasciviousness, vengeance, theft and lies. View quote
Denis Diderot
No man has received from nature the right to command his fellow human beings. View quote
Denis Diderot
The best mannered people make the most absurd lovers. View quote
Denis Diderot
In any country where talent and virtue produce no advancement, money will be the national god. Its inhabitants will either have to possess money or make others believe that they do. Wealth will be the highest virtue, poverty the greatest vice. View quote
Denis Diderot
You have to make it happen. View quote
Denis Diderot
A nation which thinks that it is belief in God and not good law which makes people honest does not seem to me very advanced. View quote
Denis Diderot
It is very important not to mistake hemlock for parsley, but to believe or not believe in God is not important at all. View quote
Denis Diderot
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. View quote
Denis Diderot
Whether God exists or does not exist, He has come to rank among the most sublime and useless truths. View quote
Denis Diderot
For me, my thoughts are my prostitutes. (Denis Diderot)
All things must be examined, debated, investigated without exception and without regard for anyone's feelings. View quote
Denis Diderot
We are constantly railing against the passions; we ascribe to them all of man's afflictions, and we forget that they are also the source of all his pleasures. View quote
Denis Diderot
I have often seen an actor laugh off the stage, but I don't remember ever having seen one weep. View quote
Denis Diderot
Go further, and require each of them to make a contribution: you will see how many things are still missing, and you will be obliged to get the assistance of a large number of men who belong to different classes, priceless men, but to whom the gates of the academies are nonetheless closed because of their social station. All the members of these learned societies are more than is needed for a single object of human science; all the societies together are not sufficient for a science of man in general. View quote
Denis Diderot