Quotes By Denis Diderot

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

There are things I can't force. I must adjust. There are times when the greatest change needed is a change of my viewpoint.

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

There is no moral precept that does not have something inconvenient about it.

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

Pithy sentences are like sharp nails which force truth upon our memory.

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.

No man has received from nature the right to command his fellow human beings.

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!