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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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Denis Diderot
Age: 70 †
Born: 1713
Born: October 5
Died: 1784
Died: July 31
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Diderot
First
Step
Therefore
Steps
Philosophy
Truth
Impartially
Wells
Examined
Firsts
Skepticism
Well
Towards

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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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Isn't it better to have men being ungrateful than to miss a chance to do good?
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Tous les jours on couche avec des femmes qu'on n'aime pas, et l'on ne couche pas avec des femmes qu'on aime. Every day we sleep with women we do not love and don't sleep with the women we do love.
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Evil always turns up in this world through some genius or other.
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We are far more liable to catch the vices than the virtues of our associates.
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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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You can be sure that a painter reveals himself in his work as much as and more than a writer does in his.
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Gratitude is a burden, and every burden is made to be shaken off.
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The world is the house of the strong.
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You risk just as much in being credulous as in being suspicious.
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They mistake the first manifestations of a developing sexual nature for the voice of God calling them to Himself and it is precisely when nature is inciting them that they embrace a fashion of life contrary to nature's wish.
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Superstition is more injurious to God than atheism.
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There is no moral precept that does not have something inconvenient about it.
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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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If reason be a gift of Heaven, and we can say as much of faith, Heaven has certainly made us two gifts not only incompatible, but in direct contradiction to each other. In order to solve the difficulty, we are compelled to say either that faith is a chimera or that reason is useless.
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No man has received from nature the right to command his fellow human beings.
Denis Diderot
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To prove the Gospels by a miracle is to prove an absurdity by something contrary to nature.
Denis Diderot
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There is only one passion, the passion for happiness.
Denis Diderot
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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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The most dangerous madmen are those created by religion, and people whose aim is to disrupt society always know how to make good use of them on occasion.
Denis Diderot