Denis Diderot Quotes
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The general interest of the masses might take the place of the insight of genius if it were allowed freedom of action.
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His hands would plait the priest's guts, if he had no rope, to strangle kings.
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Gaiety is a quality of ordinary men. Genius always presupposes some disorder in the machine.
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Patriotism is an ephemeral motive that scarcely ever outlasts the particular threat to society that aroused it.
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There is only one passion, the passion for happiness.
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You have to make it happen.
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There are things I can't force. I must adjust. There are times when the greatest change needed is a change of my viewpoint.
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On doit exiger de moi que je cherche la vérité, mais non que je la trouve.
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Evil always turns up in this world through some genius or other.
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Pithy sentences are like sharp nails which force truth upon our memory.
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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.
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In order to shake a hypothesis, it is sometimes not necessary to do anything more than push it as far as it will go.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Watch out for the fellow who talks about putting things in order! Putting things in order always means getting other people under your control.
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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.
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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.
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There is no good father who would want to resemble our Heavenly Father.
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There is no moral precept that does not have something inconvenient about it.
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This is a work that cannot be completed except by a society of men of letters and skilled workmen, each working separately on his own part, but all bound together solely by their zeal for the best interests of the human race and a feeling of mutual good will.
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Shakespeare’s fault is not the greatest into which a poet may fall. It merely indicates a deficiency of taste.
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The God of the Christians is a father who makes much of his apples, and very little of his children.
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We swallow greedily any lie that flatters us, but we sip only little by little at a truth we find bitter.