Quotes By Denis Diderot

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

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

You have to make it happen.

Watch out for the fellow who talks about putting things in order! Putting things in order always means getting other people under your control.

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.

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.

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.

From fanaticism to barbarism is only one step.

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.

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.

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

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

The first step towards philosophy is incredulity.

Poetry must have something in it that is barbaric, vast and wild.

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.

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.

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

The God of the Christians is a father who makes much of his apples, and very little of his children.

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

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

Patriotism is an ephemeral motive that scarcely ever outlasts the particular threat to society that aroused it.

Only passions, great passions can elevate the soul to great things.

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

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

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

Every man has his dignity. I'm willing to forget mine, but at my own discretion and not when someone else tells me to.

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

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

It is said that desire is a product of the will, but the converse is in fact true: will is a product of desire.