Denis Diderot Quotes - Page 7

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• For me, my thoughts are my prostitutes.

  Denis Diderot

  My Thoughts

  Denis Diderot (2013). “Rameau's Nephew (in a new translation by Ian C. Johnston)”, p.3, e-artnow

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• 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.

  Denis Diderot

  Birthday, Goodbye, Farewell

  Denis Diderot (1966). “Selected Writings”, New York : Macmillan

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• Jacques said that his master said that everything good or evil we encounter here below was written on high.

  Denis Diderot

  Evil, Encounters, Masters

  "Jacques the Fatalist". Book by Denis Diderot, 1796.

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

  Denis Diderot

  Justice, Literature, Firsts

  "The Golden Treasury of Thought: A Gathering of Quotations from the Best Ancient and Modern Authors". Book by Theodore Taylor, p. 227, 1873.

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• There comes a moment during which almost every girl or boy falls into melancholy; they are tormented by a vague inquietude which rests on everything and finds nothing to calm it. They seek solitude; they weep; the silence to be found in cloister attracts them: the image of peace that seems to reign in religious houses seduces them. They mistake the first manifestations of a developing sexual nature for the voice of God calling them to Himself; and it is precisely when nature is inciting them that they embrace a fashion of life contrary to nature's wish.

  Denis Diderot

  Girl, Fashion, Religious

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• Pithy sentences are like sharp nails which force truth upon our memory.

  Denis Diderot

  Memories, Literature, Nails

  "A Dictionary of Thoughts : Being a Cyclopedia of Laconic Quotations". Book by Tryon Edwards, 1908.

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• Those authors into whose hands nature has placed a magic wand, with which they no sooner touch us than we forget the unhappiness in life, than the darkness leaves our soul, and we are reconciled to existence, should be placed among the benefactors of the human race.

  Denis Diderot

  Race, Hands, Soul

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• Isn't it better to have men being ungrateful than to miss a chance to do good?

  Denis Diderot

  Men, Ungrateful, Missing

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• If a misplaced admiration shows imbecility, an affected criticism shows vice of character. Expose thyself rather to appear a beast than false.

  Denis Diderot

  Character, Criticism, Vices

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• Whatever dressing one gives to mushrooms, to whatever sauces our Apiciuses put them, they are not really good but to be sent back to the dungheap where they are born.

  Denis Diderot

  Mushrooms, Giving, Sauce

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• Le public ne sait pas toujours de sirer le vrai. Thepublicdoesnot alwaysknowhow todesirethetruth.

  Denis Diderot

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• I feel, I think, I judge; therefore, a part of organized matter like me is capable of feeling, thinking, and judging.

  Denis Diderot

  Thinking, Judging, Feelings

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• 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

  Stupid, People, Wicked

  Denis Diderot (1966). “Selected Writings”, New York : Macmillan

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

  Denis Diderot

  Religion, Different, Revelations

  Denis Diderot (1966). “Selected Writings”, New York : Macmillan

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• The pit of a theatre is the one place where the tears of virtuous and wicked men alike are mingled.

  Denis Diderot

  Men, Theatre, Wicked

  Denis Diderot (1966). “Selected Writings”, New York : Macmillan

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• Anyone who takes it upon himself, on his private authority, to break a bad law, thereby authorizes everyone else to break the good ones.

  Denis Diderot

  Law, Break, Authority

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• One composition is meagre, though it has many figures; another is rich, though it has few.

  Denis Diderot

  Rich, Figures, Composition

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• 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.

  Denis Diderot

  Book, Dark, Talent

  'Oeuvres complètes' (Complete Works), Volume 7, p. 678,

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

  Denis Diderot

  Freedom, Might, Genius

  "Observations on the Drawing Up of Laws". A letter to Catherine the Great, 1774.

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• The first promise exchanged by two beings of flesh was at the foot of a rock that was crumbling into dust; they took as witness for their constancy a sky that is not the same for a single instant; everything changed in them and around them, and they believed their hearts free of vicissitudes. O children! always children!

  Denis Diderot

  Love, Change, Time

  "Jacques the Fatalist". Book by Denis Diderot, 1796.

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• Does not vanity itself cease to be blamable, is it not even ennobled, when it is directed to laudable objects, when it confines itself to prompting us to great and generous actions?

  Denis Diderot

  Vanity, Doe, Action

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• It is raining bombs on the house of the Lord. I go in fear and trembling lest one of these terrible bombers gets into difficulties.

  Denis Diderot

  Rain, House, Atheism

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• Tous les jours on couche avec des femmes qu'on n'aime pas, et l'on ne couche pas avec des femmes qu'on aime. Every day we sleep with women we do not love and don't sleep with the women we do love.

  Denis Diderot

  Sleep, Femme

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• How easy it is to tell tales!

  Denis Diderot

  Fiction, Easy, Tales

  "Jacques the Fatalist". Book by Denis Diderot, 1796.

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

  Denis Diderot

  Running, Eye, Men

  Denis Diderot (1966). “Selected Writings”, New York : Macmillan

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