Denis Diderot Quotes
Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.
We swallow greedily any lie that flatters us, but we sip only little by little at a truth we find bitter.
All things must be examined, debated, investigated without exception and without regard for anyone's feelings.
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.
Oh! how near are genius and madness! Men imprison them and chain them, or raise statues to them.
In general, children, like men, and men, like children, prefer entertainment to education.
Although a man may wear fine clothing, if he lives peacefully; and is good, self-possessed, has faith and is pure; and if he does not hurt any living being, he is a holy man.
Doctors are always working to preserve our health and cooks to destroy it, but the latter are the more often successful.
The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has killed a great many philosophers.
A nation which thinks that it is belief in God and not good law which makes people honest does not seem to me very advanced.
There are things I can't force. I must adjust. There are times when the greatest change needed is a change of my viewpoint.
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.
To describe women, the pen should be dipped in the humid colors of the rainbow, and the paper dried with the dust gathered from the wings of a butterfly.
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.
Watch out for the fellow who talks about putting things in order! Putting things in order always means getting other people under your control.
First move me, astonish me, break my heart, let me tremble, weep, stare, be enraged-only then regale my eyes.
The man who first pronounced the barbarous word God ought to have been immediately destroyed.
To prove the Gospels by a miracle is to prove an absurdity by something contrary to nature.
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.
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 Christian religion teaches us to imitate a God that is cruel, insidious, jealous, and implacable in his wrath.
First of all move me, surprise me, rend my heart; make me tremble, weep, shudder; outrage me; delight my eyes afterwards if you can.
I like better for one to say some foolish thing upon important matters than to be silent. That becomes the subject of discussion and dispute, and the truth is discovered.
It is not human nature we should accuse but the despicable conventions that pervert it.
There is no kind of harassment that a man may not inflict on a woman with impunity in civilized societies.
It is very important not to mistake hemlock for parsley, but to believe or not believe in God is not important at all.
It is said that desire is a product of the will, but the converse is in fact true: will is a product of desire.
Morals are in all countries the result of legislation and government; they are not African or Asian or European: they are good or bad.
