Quotes by Denis Diderot

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

“Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest”

“If you want me to believe in God, you must make me touch him.”

“We swallow greedily any lie that flatters us, but we sip only little by little at a truth we find bitter.”

“There are three principal means of acquiring knowledge. . . observation of nature, reflection, and experimentation. Observation collects facts; reflection combines them; experimentation verifies the result of that combination.”

“The best mannered people make the most absurd lovers”

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

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

“Skepticism is the first step on the road to philosophy”

“The infant runs toward it with its eyes closed, the adult is stationary, the old man approaches it with his back turned.”

“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.”

“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.”

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

“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.”

“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.”

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

“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.”

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

“One declaims endlessly against the passions; one imputes all of mans suffering to them. One forgets that they are also the source of all his pleasures.”

“Every man has his dignity. Im willing to forget mine, but at my own discretion and not when someone else tells me to.”