Best Diderot Quotes & Sayings

Diderot took the ground that, if orthodox religion be true Christ was guilty of suicide. Having the power to defend himself he should have used it. — Robert Green Ingersoll

It is not the man who is beside himself, but he who is cool and collected,
who is master of his countenance, of his voice, of his actions, of his gestures, of every part of his play,
who can work upon others at his pleasure. — Denis Diderot

I like better for one to say some foolish thing upon important matters than to be silent. That becomes the subject of discussion and dispute, and the truth is discovered. — Denis Diderot

Indeed, the purpose of an encyclopedia is to collect knowledge disseminated around the globe; to set forth its general system to the men with whom we live, and transmit it to those who will come after us, so that the work of preceding centuries will not become useless to the centuries to come; and so that our offspring, becoming better instructed, will at the same time become more virtuous and happy, and that we should not die without having rendered a service to the human race in the future years to come. — Denis Diderot

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. — Denis Diderot

Anyone who takes it upon himself, on his private authority, to break a bad law, thereby authorizes everyone else to break the good ones. — Denis Diderot

You can be sure that a painter reveals himself in his work as much as and more than a writer does in his. — Denis Diderot

I am more affected by the attractions of virtue than by the deformities of vice; I turn gently away from the wicked and I fly to meet the good. If there is in a literary work, in a character, in a picture, in a statue, a beautiful spot, that is where my eyes rest; I see only that, I remember only that, all the rest is well-nigh forgotten. What becomes of me when the whole work is beautiful! — Denis Diderot

Our truest opinions are not those we never change, but those to which we most often return. — Denis Diderot

Passions destroy more prejudices than philosophy does. — Denis Diderot

One composition is meagre, though it has many figures; another is rich, though it has few. — 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

When science, art, literature, and philosophy are simply the manifestation of personality they are on a level where glorious and dazzling achievements are possible, which can make a man's name live for thousands of years. — Denis Diderot

Man was born to live with his fellow human beings. Separate him, isolate him, his character will go bad, a thousand ridiculous affects will invade his heart, extravagant thoughts will germinate in his brain, like thorns in an uncultivated land. — Denis Diderot

The best order of things, as I see it, is the one that includes me; to hell with the most perfect of worlds, if I'm not part of it. — Denis Diderot

It is raining bombs on the house of the Lord. I go in fear and trembling lest one of these terrible bombers gets into difficulties. — Denis Diderot

I picture the vast realm of the sciences as an immense landscape scattered with patches of dark and light. The goal towards which we must work is either to extend the boundaries of the patches of light, or to increase their number. One of these tasks falls to the creative genius; the other requires a sort of sagacity combined with perfectionism. — Denis Diderot

There is no moral precept that does not have something inconvenient about it. — Denis Diderot

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

The best mannered people make the most absurd lovers. — Denis Diderot

It is as the father of the Encyclopedia that Denis Diderot merits eternal recognition. Guilty as he was in almost every relation of life towards the individual, for mankind, in the teeth of danger and of infidelity, at the ill-paid sacrifice of the best years of his exuberant life, he produced that book which first levelled a free path to knowledge and enfranchised the soul of his generation. — Evelyn Beatrice Hall

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

If a misplaced admiration shows imbecility, an affected criticism shows vice of character. Expose thyself rather to appear a beast than false. — Denis Diderot

All abstract sciences are nothing but the study of relations between signs. — Denis Diderot

Whatever dressing one gives to mushrooms, to whatever sauces our Apiciuses put them, they are not really good but to be sent back to the dungheap where they are born. — Denis Diderot

I can be expected to look for truth but not to find it. — Denis Diderot

What has not been examined impartially has not been well examined. Skepticism is therefore the first step towards truth. — Denis Diderot

Justice is the first virtue of those who command, and stops the complaints of those who obey. — Denis Diderot

There is only one duty; that is to be happy. — 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

Mind what you do; if you deceive me once I shall never believe you again. — 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. — Denis Diderot

But if you will recall the history of our civil troubles, you will see half the nation bathe itself, out of piety, in the blood of the other half, and violate the fundamental feelings of humanity in order to sustain the cause of God: as though it were necessary to cease to be a man in order to prove oneself religious! — Denis Diderot

It is not human nature we should accuse but the despicable conventions that pervert it. — Denis Diderot

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

It seems to me that if one had kept silence up to now regarding religion, people would still be submerged in the most grotesque and dangerous superstition ... regarding government, we would still be groaning under the bonds of feudal government ... regarding morals, we would still be having to learn what is virtue and what is vice. To forbid all these discussions, the only ones worthy of occupying a good mind, is to perpetuate the reign of ignorance and barbarism. — Denis Diderot

How had they met? By chance, like everybody else. What were there names? What's it to you? Where were they coming from? From the nearest place. Where were they going? Does anyone really know where they're going? — Denis Diderot

If reason be a gift of Heaven, and we can say as much of faith, Heaven has certainly made us two gifts not only incompatible, but in direct contradiction to each other. In order to solve the difficulty, we are compelled to say either that faith is a chimera or that reason is useless. — Denis Diderot