Denis Diderot

(421 votes)   Distance is a great promoter of admiration!

Denis Diderot
1713-1784, French Philosopher

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(262 votes)   We swallow with one gulp the lie that flatters us, and drink drop by drop the truth which is bitter to us.

Denis Diderot
1713-1784, French Philosopher

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(162 votes)   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 its shape and comfort.

Denis Diderot
1713-1784, French Philosopher

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(133 votes)   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
1713-1784, French Philosopher

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(130 votes)   The world is the house of the strong. I shall not know until the end what I have lost or won in this place, in this vast gambling den where I have spent more than sixty years, dicebox in hand, shaking the dice.

Denis Diderot
1713-1784, French Philosopher

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(129 votes)   The most dangerous madmen are those created by religion, and people whose aim is to disrupt society always know how to make good use of them on occasion.

Denis Diderot
1713-1784, French Philosopher

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(124 votes)   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
1713-1784, French Philosopher

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(118 votes)   In any country where talent and virtue produce no advancement, money will be the national god. Its inhabitants will either have to possess money or make others believe that they do. Wealth will be the highest virtue, poverty the greatest vice. Those who have money will display it in every imaginable way. If their ostentation does not exceed their fortune, all will be well. But if their ostentation does exceed their fortune they will ruin themselves. In such a country, the greatest fortunes will vanish in the twinkling of an eye. Those who don't have money will ruin themselves with vain efforts to conceal their poverty. That is one kind of affluence: the outward sign of wealth for a small number, the mask of poverty for the majority, and a source of corruption for all.

Denis Diderot
1713-1784, French Philosopher

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(103 votes)   There are three principal means of acquiring knowledge available to us: observation of nature, reflection, and experimentation. Observation collects facts; reflection combines them; experimentation verifies the result of that combination. 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.

Denis Diderot
1713-1784, French Philosopher

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(96 votes)   No man has received from nature the right to give orders to others. Freedom is a gift from heaven, and every individual of the same species has the right to enjoy it as soon as he is in enjoyment of his reason.

Denis Diderot
1713-1784, French Philosopher

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(76 votes)   Do you see this egg? With this you can topple every theological theory, every church or temple in the world.

Denis Diderot
1713-1784, French Philosopher

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(66 votes)   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!

Denis Diderot
French, Editor Quotes

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(53 votes)   Justice is the first virtue of those who command, and stops the complaints of those who obey.

Denis Diderot
French, Editor Quotes

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(44 votes)   Gratitude is a burden, and every burden is made to be shaken off.

Denis Diderot
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(44 votes)   Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.

Denis Diderot
French, Editor Quotes

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