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Justice is the first virtue of those who command, and stops the complaints 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
Justice
Literature
Firsts
First
Complaints
Obey
Stops
Command
Virtue

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The blood of Jesus Christ can cover a multitude of sins, it seems to me.
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Isn't it better to have men being ungrateful than to miss a chance to do good?
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Do you see this egg? With this you can topple every theological theory, every church or temple in the world.
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It is very important not to mistake hemlock for parsley, but to believe or not believe in God is not important at all.
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Gratitude is a burden, and every burden is made to be shaken off.
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Whether God exists or does not exist, He has come to rank among the most sublime and useless truths.
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To say that man is a compound of strength and weakness, light and darkness, smallness and greatness, is not to indict him, it is to define him.
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First of all move me, surprise me, rend my heart make me tremble, weep, shudder outrage me delight my eyes afterwards if you can.
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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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If the weather is too cold or rainy, I take shelter in the Regence Cafe, where I entertain myself by watching chess being played. Paris is the world center, and this cafe is the Paris centre for the finest skill at this game.
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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.
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The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has killed a great many philosophers.
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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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Ignorance is less remote from the truth than prejudice.
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Are we not madder than those first inhabitants of the plain of Sennar? We know that the distance separating the earth from the sky is infinite, and yet we do not stop building our tower.
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And his hands would plait the priest's entrails, For want of a rope, to strangle kings.
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At an early age I sucked up the milk of Homer, Virgil, Horace, Terence, Anacreon, Plato and Euripides, diluted with that of Moses and the prophets.
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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.
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There are things I can't force. I must adjust. There are times when the greatest change needed is a change of my viewpoint.
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La poe sie veutquelque chose d'e norme, debarbare et de sauvage. Poetry needs something on the scale of the grand, the barbarous, the savage.
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