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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.

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
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Diderot
Imagination
Disaster
Spectacles
Nations
Terror
Shaken
Born
Breathe
Witnessed
Great
Paint
Imaginations
Things
Begin
Disasters
Time
Poet
Misfortunes
Strange
Poets
Shall
Entirely

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To prove the Gospels by a miracle is to prove an absurdity by something contrary to nature.
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There are cats and cats.
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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.
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Scepticism is the first step toward truth.
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There is no moral precept that does not have something inconvenient about it.
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From fanaticism to barbarism is only one step.
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He whom we call a gentleman is no longer the man of Nature.
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But if you will recall the history of our civil troubles, you will see half the nation bathe itself, out of piety, in the blood of the other half, and violate the fundamental feelings of humanity in order to sustain the cause of God: as though it were necessary to cease to be a man in order to prove oneself religious!
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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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Justice is the first virtue of those who command, and stops the complaints of those who obey.
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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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There is only one passion, the passion for happiness.
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Jacques said that his master said that everything good or evil we encounter here below was written on high.
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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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There is no good father who would want to resemble our Heavenly Father.
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I discuss with myself questions of politics, love, taste, or philosophy. I let my mind rove wantonly, give it free rein to followany idea, wise or mad that may present itself. My ideas are my harlots.
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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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A nation which thinks that it is belief in God and not good law which makes people honest does not seem to me very advanced.
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My friend, you should blow out your candle in order to find your way more clearly.
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Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.
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