Quote

Scepticism is the first step toward truth.

Denis Diderot

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

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
First
Step
Toward
Steps
Philosophy
Literature
Science
Truth
Incredulity
Firsts
Scepticism

More quotes by Denis Diderot

Image
There is only one passion, the passion for happiness.
Denis Diderot
Image
One may demand of me that I should seek truth, but not that I should find it
Denis Diderot
Image
A thing is not proved because no one has ever questioned it... Skepticism is the first step toward truth.
Denis Diderot
Image
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.
Denis Diderot
Image
There is no moral precept that does not have something inconvenient about it.
Denis Diderot
Image
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
Image
Two qualities essential for the artist: moralityand perspective.
Denis Diderot
Image
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
Image
To describe women, the pen should be dipped in the humid colors of the rainbow, and the paper dried with the dust gathered from the wings of a butterfly.
Denis Diderot
Image
To prove the Gospels by a miracle is to prove an absurdity by something contrary to nature.
Denis Diderot
Image
The world is the house of the strong.
Denis Diderot
Image
The pit of a theatre is the one place where the tears of virtuous and wicked men alike are mingled.
Denis Diderot
Image
Bad company is as instructive as licentiousness. One makes up for the loss of one's innocence with the loss of one's prejudices.
Denis Diderot
Image
Justice is the first virtue of those who command, and stops the complaints of those who obey.
Denis Diderot
Image
In any country where talent and virtue produce no advancement, money will be the national god. Its inhabitants will either have to possess money or make others believe that they do. Wealth will be the highest virtue, poverty the greatest vice.
Denis Diderot
Image
We are all instruments endowed with feeling and memory. Our senses are so many strings that are struck by surrounding objects and that also frequently strike themselves.
Denis Diderot
Image
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
Image
I feel, I think, I judge therefore, a part of organized matter like me is capable of feeling, thinking, and judging.
Denis Diderot
Image
Whether God exists or does not exist, He has come to rank among the most sublime and useless truths.
Denis Diderot
Image
The general interest of the masses might take the place of the insight of genius if it were allowed freedom of action.
Denis Diderot