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In order to get as much fame as one's father one has to much more able than he.

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
Fame
Father
Order
Able
Much
Reputation

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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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Gaiety is a quality of ordinary men. Genius always presupposes some disorder in the machine.
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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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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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Every man has his dignity. I'm willing to forget mine, but at my own discretion and not when someone else tells me to.
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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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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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Although a man may wear fine clothing, if he lives peacefully and is good, self-possessed, has faith and is pure and if he does not hurt any living being, he is a holy man.
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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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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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We swallow with one gulp the lie that flatters us, and drink drop by drop the truth which is bitter to us.
Denis Diderot
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En ge ne ral, plus un peuple est civilise , poli, moins ses moeurs sont poe tiques tout s'affaiblit en s'adoucissant. Ingeneral, themore civilized and refinedthepeople, the less poetic are its morals everything weakens as it mellows.
Denis Diderot
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Le public ne sait pas toujours de sirer le vrai. Thepublicdoesnot alwaysknowhow todesirethetruth.
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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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
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Those who fear the facts will forever try to discredit the fact-finders.
Denis Diderot
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Good music is very close to primitive language.
Denis Diderot
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Ignorance is less remote from the truth than prejudice.
Denis Diderot
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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.
Denis Diderot