Denis Diderot Quotes (78 Quotes)


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

    Although a man may wear fine clothing, if he lives peacefully; and is good, self-possessed, has faith and is pure; and if he does not hurt any living being, he is a holy man.

    There are three principal means of acquiring knowledge... observation of nature, reflection, and experimentation. Observation collects facts; reflection combines them; experimentation verifies the result of that combination.

    Only a very bad theologian would confuse the certainty that follows revelation with the truths that are revealed. They are entirely different things.

    Morals are in all countries the result of legislation and government; they are not African or Asian or European: they are good or 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.

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

    In order to shake a hypothesis, it is sometimes not necessary to do anything more than push it as far as it will go.

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

    There is no good father who would want to resemble our Heavenly Father.

    The best mannered people make the most absurd lovers.

    Gratitude is a burden, and every burden is made to be shaken off.

    The best doctor is the one you run for and can't find.

    Skepticism is the first step on the road to philosophy.

    The decisions of law courts should never be printed: in the long run, they form a counter authority to the law.

    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.

    Evil always turns up in this world through some genius or other.

    One declaims endlessly against the passions; one imputes all of man's suffering to them. One forgets that they are also the source of all his pleasures.

    It is very important not to mistake hemlock for parsley, but to believe or not believe in God is not important at all.

    Happiest are the people who give most happiness to others

    To prove the Gospels by a miracle is to prove an absurdity by something contrary to nature

    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.

    The infant runs toward it with its eyes closed, the adult is stationary, the old man approaches it with his back turned.

    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.

    Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.

    Descartes said I think, therefore I am. Helvetius wants to say I feel, therefore I want to feel pleasantly. I prefer Hobbes who claims that in order to draw a conclusion which takes us somewhere, we must say, I feel, I think, I judge therefore, a part of organized matter like me is capable of feeling, thinking, and judging.

    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.

    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!

    See this egg. It is with this that all the schools of theology and all the temples of the earth are to be overturned.

    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.

    Sentences are like sharp nails, which force truth upon our memories.

    Women swallow at one mouthful the lie that flatters, and drink drop by drop the truth that is bitter

    The general interest of the masses might take the place of the insight of genius if it were allowed freedom of action.

    We swallow with one gulp the lie that flatters us, and drink drop by drop the truth which is bitter to us.

    His hands would plait the priest's guts, if he had no rope, to strangle kings.

    There is no kind of harassment that a man may not inflict on a woman with impunity in civilized societies.

    The following general definition of an animal a system of different organic molecules that have combined with one another, under the impulsion of a sensation similar to an obtuse and muffled sense of touch given to them by the creator of matter as a whole, until each one of them has found the most suitable position for its shape and comfort.


    If you want me to believe in God, you must make me touch him.

    The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has killed a great many philosophers.

    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.

    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 blood of Jesus Christ can cover a multitude of sins, it seems to me.

    Oh how near are genius and madness Men imprison them and chain them, or raise statues to them.

    Gaiety is a quality of ordinary men. Genius always presupposes some disorder in the machine.

    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.

    Do you see this egg With this you can topple every theological theory, every church or temple in the world.


    The pit of a theatre is the one place where the tears of virtuous and wicked men alike are mingled.

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


    More Denis Diderot Quotations (Based on Topics)


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