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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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Literary Theorist
Lumières
Diderot
Literature
Science
Truth
Incredulity
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Scepticism
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Philosophy

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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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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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Only God and some few rare geniuses can keep forging ahead into novelty.
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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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The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has killed a great many philosophers.
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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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Only passions, and great passions, can raise the soul to great things. Without them there is no sublimity, either in morals or in creativity. Art returns to infancy, and virtue becomes small-minded.
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In general, children, like men, and men, like children, prefer entertainment to education.
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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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There is no good father who would want to resemble our Heavenly Father.
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What is a monster? A being whose survival is incompatible with the existing order.
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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.
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Superstition is more injurious to God than atheism.
Denis Diderot
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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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The arbitrary rule of a just and enlightened prince is always bad. His virtues are the most dangerous and the surest form of seduction: they lull a people imperceptibly into the habit of loving, respecting, and serving his successor, whoever that successor may be, no matter how wicked or stupid.
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If exclusive privileges were not granted, and if the financial system would not tend to concentrate wealth, there would be few great fortunes and no quick wealth. When the means of growing rich is divided between a greater number of citizens, wealth will also be more evenly distributed extreme poverty and extreme wealth would be also rare.
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Instinct guides the animal better than the man. In the animal it is pure, in man it is led astray by his reason and intelligence.
Denis Diderot
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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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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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The infant runs toward it with its eyes closed, the adult is stationary, the old man approaches it with his back turned.
Denis Diderot