Quotes by Denis Diderot

“Only passions great passions can elevate the soul to great things.”

“Isn't it better to have men be ungrateful than to miss a chance to do good?”

“Instinct guides the animal better than the man. In the animal it is pure in man it is led astray by his reason and intelligence.”

“From fanaticism to barbarism is only one step.”

“What is this world? A complex whole, subject to endless revolutions. All these revolutions show a continual tendency to destruction; a swift succession of beings who follow one another, press forwa...”

“As to all the outward signs that awaken within us feelings of sympathy and compassion, the blind are only affected by crying; I suspect them in general of lacking humanity. What difference is there...”

“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.”

“Only a very bad theologian would confuse the certainty that follows revelation with the truths that are revealed. They are entirely different things.”

“Il y a un peu de testicule au fond de nos sentiments les plus sublimes et de notre tendresse la plus épurée.”

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

“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 a...”

“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, re...”

“L'esprit de l'escalier”

“It has been said that love robs those who have it of their wit, and gives it to those who have none.”

“Man was born to live with his fellow human beings. Separate him, isolate him, his character will go bad, a thousand ridiculous affects will invade his heart, extravagant thoughts will germinate in ...”

“As for our celebrated lawgivers, who have cast us in our present awkward mold, you may be sure that they have acted to serve their interests and not ours. Witness all our political, civil, and reli...”

“The wisest among us is very lucky never to have met the woman, be she beautiful or ugly, intelligent or stupid, who could drive him crazy enough to be fit to be put into an asylum.”

“How old the world is! I walk between two eternities... What is my fleeting existence in comparison with that decaying rock, that valley digging its channel ever deeper, that forest that is totterin...”

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

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