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Power acquired by violence is only a usurpation, and lasts only as long as the force of him who commands prevails over that of those who obey.

Denis Diderot

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Denis Diderot
Age: 70 †
Born: 1713
Born: October 5
Died: 1784
Died: July 31
Abbé
Art Critic
Art Theorist
Correspondent
Encyclopédistes
Essayist
Historian
Lexicographer
Literary Critic
Literary Theorist
Lumières
Diderot
Command
Violence
Literature
Usurpation
Lasts
Prevails
Force
Commands
Power
Acquired
Long
Obey
Denial

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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.
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Scepticism is the first step toward truth.
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The pit of a theatre is the one place where the tears of virtuous and wicked men alike are mingled.
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Two qualities essential for the artist: moralityand perspective.
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Superstition is more injurious to God than atheism.
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Gaiety is a quality of ordinary men. Genius always presupposes some disorder in the machine.
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In order to get as much fame as one's father one has to much more able than he.
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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.
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He whom we call a gentleman is no longer the man of Nature.
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All things must be examined, debated, investigated without exception and without regard for anyone's feelings... We must run roughshod over all these ancient puerilities, overturn the barriers that reason never erected, give back to the arts and sciences the liberty that is so precious to them.
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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.
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No man has received from nature the right to command his fellow human beings.
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How easy it is to tell tales!
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There is less harm to be suffered in being mad among madmen than in being sane all by oneself.
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Those who fear the facts will forever try to discredit the fact-finders.
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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.
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Evil always turns up in this world through some genius or other.
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We swallow greedily any lie that flatters us, but we sip only little by little at a truth we find bitter.
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Good music is very close to primitive language.
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Time, matter, space - all, it may be, are no more than a point.
Denis Diderot