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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

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Denis Diderot
Age: 70 †
Born: 1713
Born: October 5
Died: 1784
Died: July 31
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Diderot
General
Genius
Interest
Freedom
Action
Masses
Place
Insight
Might
Allowed
Take
Mass

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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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If there are one hundred thousand damned souls for one saved soul, the devil has always the advantage without having given up his son to death.
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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.
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No man has received from nature the right to command his fellow human beings.
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Ignorance is less remote from the truth than prejudice.
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There is only one virtue, justice only one duty, to be happy only one corollary, not to overvalue life and not to fear death.
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Posterity for the philosopher is what the other world is for the religious man.
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What has not been examined impartially has not been well examined. Skepticism is therefore the first step towards truth.
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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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There is no moral precept that does not have something inconvenient about it.
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There is only one passion, the passion for happiness.
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It is not the man who is beside himself, but he who is cool and collected,--who is master of his countenance, of his voice, of his actions, of his gestures, of every part of his play,--who can work upon others at his pleasure.
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Only God and some few rare geniuses can keep forging ahead into novelty.
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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.
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Scepticism is the first step toward truth.
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The world is the house of the strong. I shall not know until the end what I have lost or won in this place, in this vast gambling den where I have spent more than sixty years, dice box in hand, shaking the dice.
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If there is one realm in which it is essential to be sublime, it is in wickedness. You spit on a petty thief, but you can't deny a kind of respect for the great criminal.
Denis Diderot
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Time, matter, space - all, it may be, are no more than a point.
Denis Diderot
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But if you will recall the history of our civil troubles, you will see half the nation bathe itself, out of piety, in the blood of the other half, and violate the fundamental feelings of humanity in order to sustain the cause of God: as though it were necessary to cease to be a man in order to prove oneself religious!
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If you disturb the colors of the rainbow, the rainbow is no longer beautiful.
Denis Diderot