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Denis Diderot: 212 quotes19 likes

“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 book Rameau's Nephew

Rameau's Nephew (1762)

“I have often seen an actor laugh off the stage, but I don’t remember ever having seen one weep.”

Denis Diderot

"Paradox on Acting" (1830), as quoted in Selected Writings (1966) edited by Lester G. Crocker

“Wandering in a vast forest at night, I have only a faint light to guide me. A stranger appears and says to me: "My friend, you should blow out your candle in order to find your way more clearly." This stranger is a theologian. — Number VIII”

Denis Diderot book Addition aux Pensées philosophiques

Addition aux Pensées philosophiques (1770)

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

Denis Diderot

"On Women" (1772), as translated in Selected Writings (1966) edited by Lester G. Crocker

“The decisions of law courts should never be printed: in the long run, they form a counterauthority to the law.”

Denis Diderot

Observations on the Drawing Up of Laws (1774)

“How easy it is to tell tales!”

Denis Diderot

Jacques le Fataliste (1796)

“Go further, and require each of them to make a contribution: you will see how many things are still missing, and you will be obliged to get the assistance of a large number of men who belong to different classes, priceless men, but to whom the gates of the academies are nonetheless closed because of their social station. All the members of these learned societies are more than is needed for a single object of human science; all the societies together are not sufficient for a science of man in general.”

Denis Diderot

Article on Encyclopedia
L'Encyclopédie (1751-1766)

“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.”

Denis Diderot

On Dramatic Poetry (1758)

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

Denis Diderot

Conversations with a Christian Lady (1774)

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

Denis Diderot

Observations on the Drawing Up of Laws (1774)

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

Denis Diderot

No. 50
On the Interpretation of Nature (1753)

“How did they meet? By chance, like everybody … Where did they come from? From the nearest place. Where were they going? Do we know where we are going?”

Denis Diderot

Prologue
Jacques le Fataliste (1796)

“There is only one passion, the passion for happiness.”

Denis Diderot

"Will, Freedom”
Elements of Physiology (1875)

“We are far more liable to catch the vices than the virtues of our associates.”

Denis Diderot

As quoted in Thesaurus of Epigrams: A New Classified Collection of Witty Remarks, Bon Mots and Toasts (1942) by Edmund Fuller

“Superstition is more injurious to God than atheism.”

Denis Diderot

Pensées Philosophiques (1746)

“The best doctor is the one you run for and can't find.”

Denis Diderot

As quoted in Selected Thoughts from the French: XV Century - XX Century, with English Translations (1913) by James Raymond Solly, p. 67

“To prove the Gospels by a miracle is to prove an absurdity by something contrary to nature.”

Denis Diderot

As quoted in The Anchor Book of French Quotations with English Translations (1963) by Norbert Gutermam
Pensées Philosophiques (1746)

“The following general definition of an animal: a system of different organic molecules that have combined with one another, under the impulsion of a sensation similar to an obtuse and muffled sense of touch given to them by the creator of matter as a whole, until each one of them has found the most suitable position for it shape and comfort.”

Denis Diderot

No. 51
On the Interpretation of Nature (1753)

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

Denis Diderot

As quoted in Dictionary of Foreign Quotations (1980) by Mary Collison, Robert L. Collison, p. 98