Denis Diderot quotes Born: 10/05/1713 Died: 07/31/1784 Country: france

• The infant runs toward it with its eyes closed, the adult is stationary, the old man approaches it with his back turned. (Denis Diderot) [eyes]
• The arbitrary rule of a just and enlightened prince is always bad. His virtues are the most dangerous and the surest form of seduction: they lull a people imperceptibly into the habit of loving, respecting, and serving his successor, whoever that successor may be, no matter how wicked or stupid. (Denis Diderot) [bad/form/people/habit]
• 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) [desire/product/willpower/willpower]
• The most dangerous madmen are those created by religion, and people whose aim is to disrupt society always know how to make good use of them on occasion. (Denis Diderot) [religion/people/society]
• 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. (Denis Diderot) [nature/right/give/right]
• The world is the house of the strong. I shall not know until the end what I have lost or won in this place, in this vast gambling den where I have spent more than sixty years, dicebox in hand, shaking the dice. (Denis Diderot) [start/gambling/more]
• 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) [genius/present/age/men]
• Gaiety --a quality of ordinary men. Genius always presupposes some disorder in the machine. (Denis Diderot) [gaiety/quality/men/genius]
• We swallow with one gulp the lie that flatters us, and drink drop by drop the truth which is bitter to us. (Denis Diderot) [/truth]
• Only passions, great passions can elevate the soul to great things. (Denis Diderot)
• There is only one passion, the passion for happiness. (Denis Diderot) [pleasure/pleasure/happiness]
• The decisions of law courts should never be printed: in the long run, they form a counter authority to the law. (Denis Diderot) [right/form/goodwill/right]
• Pithy sentences are like sharp nails which force truth upon our memory. (Denis Diderot) [truth/memory]
• The blood of Jesus Christ can cover a multitude of sins, it seems to me. (Denis Diderot) [blood]
• There is no kind of harassment that a man may not inflict on a woman with impunity in civilized societies. (Denis Diderot)
• There are three principal means of acquiring knowledge available to us: observation of nature, reflection, and experimentation. Observation collects facts; reflection combines them; experimentation verifies the result of that combination. 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. (Denis Diderot) [knowledge/observation/nature/observation]
• Sentences are like sharp nails, which force truth upon our memories. (Denis Diderot) [truth]
• It is not human nature we should accuse but the despicable conventions that pervert it. (Denis Diderot) [human/nature]
• The general interest of the masses might take the place of the insight of genius if it were allowed freedom of action. (Denis Diderot) [interest/take/insight/genius]
• Justice is the first virtue of those who command, and stops the complaints of those who obey. (Denis Diderot) [/virtue]
• Good music is very close to primitive language. (Denis Diderot) [music/language]
• All abstract sciences are nothing but the study of relations between signs. (Denis Diderot) [relations]
• 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) [morals/countries/result/legislation]
• Patriotism is an ephemeral motive that scarcely ever outlasts the particular threat to society that aroused it. (Denis Diderot) [patriotism/threat/society]
• 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. (Denis Diderot) [superstition/age/human/excellence]
• Poetry must have something in it that is barbaric, vast and wild. (Denis Diderot) [poetry/wild]
• The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has killed a great many philosophers. (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) [society/more/religion]
• The pit of a theatre is the one place where the tears of virtuous and wicked men alike are mingled. (Denis Diderot) [theatre/tears/men]
• Only a very bad theologian would confuse the certainty that follows revelation with the truths that are revealed. They are entirely different things. (Denis Diderot) [bad]
• We are all instruments endowed with feeling and memory. Our senses are so many strings that are struck by surrounding objects and that also frequently strike themselves. (Denis Diderot) [feeling/memory/strike]

Calendar

Sun Mon Tue Wen Thu Fri Sat Apr 21 [148] Apr 22 [66] 23 [137] 24 [57] 25 [65] 26 [51] 27 [71] 28 Apr 29 [10] 30 [58] 1 [2] 2 [50] 3 [73] 4 [75] 5 [35] May 6 [75] 7 [104] 8 [50] 9 10 [106] 11 [79] 12 [50] May 13 [50] 14 [8] 15 [75] 16 [114] 17 [50] 18 [112] 19 May 20 [79] 21 [76] 22 [59]

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