3 December 2020 Denis Diderot Patriotism is an ephemeral motive that scarcely ever outlasts the particular threat to society that aroused it.
3 December 2020 Denis Diderot 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.
3 December 2020 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.
3 December 2020 Denis Diderot 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.
3 December 2020 Denis Diderot 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.
3 December 2020 Denis Diderot 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.
3 December 2020 Denis Diderot If there is one realm in which it is essential to be sublime, it is in wickedness. You spit on a petty thief, but you can’t deny a kind of respect for the great criminal.
3 December 2020 Denis Diderot Power acquired by violence is only a usurpation, and lasts only as long as the force of him who commands prevails over that of those who obey.
3 December 2020 Denis Diderot We swallow greedily any lie that flatters us, but we sip only little by little at a truth we find bitter.
3 December 2020 Denis Diderot The general interest of the masses might take the place of the insight of genius if it were allowed freedom of action.
3 December 2020 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.
3 December 2020 Denis Diderot No man has received from nature the right to command his fellow human beings.
3 December 2020 Denis Diderot It is not human nature we should accuse but the despicable conventions that pervert it.
3 December 2020 Denis Diderot 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.
3 December 2020 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.
3 December 2020 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.
3 December 2020 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.
3 December 2020 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.
3 December 2020 Denis Diderot Pithy sentences are like sharp nails which force truth upon our memory.
3 December 2020 Denis Diderot The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has killed a great many philosophers.
3 December 2020 Denis Diderot Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.
