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There is not a Musselman alive who would not imagine that he was performing an action pleasing to God and his Holy Prophet by exterminating every Christian on earth, while the Christians are scarcely more tolerant on their side.
Denis Diderot -
There is no good father who would want to resemble our Heavenly Father.
Denis Diderot
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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.
Denis Diderot -
Gaiety is a quality of ordinary men. Genius always presupposes some disorder in the machine.
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.
Denis Diderot -
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.
Denis Diderot -
Only passions, great passions can elevate the soul to great things.
Denis Diderot -
Égaré dans une forêt immense pendant la nuit, je n’ai qu’une petite lumière pour me conduire. Survient un inconnu qui me dit : Mon ami, souffle ta bougie pour mieux trouver ton chemin. Cet inconnu est un théologien. - No VIII
Denis Diderot
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The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has killed a great many philosophers.
Denis Diderot -
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 -
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 -
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.
Denis Diderot -
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 -
La reconnaissance est un fardeau, et tout fardeau est fait pour être secoué.
Denis Diderot
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There is no kind of harassment that a man may not inflict on a woman with impunity in civilized societies.
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 -
There is no moral precept that does not have something inconvenient about it.
Denis Diderot -
If your little savage were left to himself and be allowed to retain all his ignorance, he would in time join the infant’s reasoning to the grown man’s passion, he would strangle his father and sleep with his mother.
Denis Diderot -
Justice is the first virtue of those who command, and stops the complaints of those who obey.
Denis Diderot -
We are far more liable to catch the vices than the virtues of our associates.
Denis Diderot
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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.
Denis Diderot -
All abstract sciences are nothing but the study of relations between signs.
Denis Diderot -
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.
Denis Diderot -
The first promise exchanged by two beings of flesh was at the foot of a rock that was crumbling into dust; they took as witness for their constancy a sky that is not the same for a single instant; everything changed in them and around them, and they believed their hearts free of vicissitudes. O children! always children!
Denis Diderot