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Scepticism is the first step toward truth.

Denis Diderot

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Denis Diderot
Age: 70 †
Born: 1713
Born: October 5
Died: 1784
Died: July 31
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Art Critic
Art Theorist
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Encyclopédistes
Essayist
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Literary Critic
Literary Theorist
Lumières
Diderot
Philosophy
Literature
Science
Truth
Incredulity
Firsts
Scepticism
First
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Steps

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The fact is that she was terribly undressed and I was extremely undressed too. The fact is that I still had my hand where she didn't have anything and she had hers where the same wasn't quite true of me. The fact is that I found myself underneath her and consequently she found herself on top of me.
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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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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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My friend, you should blow out your candle in order to find your way more clearly.
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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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Integrity is the evidence of all civil virtues.
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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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The decisions of law courts should never be printed: in the long run, they form a counter authority to the law.
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Skepticism is the first step on the road to philosophy.
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Good music is very close to primitive language.
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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.
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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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The general interest of the masses might take the place of the insight of genius if it were allowed freedom of action.
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Every man has his dignity. I'm willing to forget mine, but at my own discretion and not when someone else tells me to.
Denis Diderot
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What has not been examined impartially has not been well examined. Skepticism is therefore the first step towards truth.
Denis Diderot
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Evil always turns up in this world through some genius or other.
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Posterity for the philosopher is what the other world is for the religious man.
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In general, children, like men, and men, like children, prefer entertainment to education.
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There is no good father who would want to resemble our Heavenly Father.
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When shall we see poets born? After a time of disasters and great misfortunes, when harrowed nations begin to breathe again. And then, shaken by the terror of such spectacles, imaginations will paint things entirely strange to those who have not witnessed them.
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