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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.

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
Stupid
Virtues
Successor
Dangerous
Enlightened
Lulls
Virtue
Whoever
Successors
Form
Serving
Seduction
May
Wicked
Surest
Matter
Loving
Respecting
Always
Rule
Arbitrary
Lull
People
Habit
Prince
Imperceptibly

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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.
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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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He whom we call a gentleman is no longer the man of Nature.
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To say that man is a compound of strength and weakness, light and darkness, smallness and greatness, is not to indict him, it is to define him.
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The pit of a theatre is the one place where the tears of virtuous and wicked men alike are mingled.
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If you disturb the colors of the rainbow, the rainbow is no longer beautiful.
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Ignorance is less remote from the truth than prejudice.
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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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And his hands would plait the priest's entrails, For want of a rope, to strangle kings.
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You have to make it happen.
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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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Le public ne sait pas toujours de sirer le vrai. Thepublicdoesnot alwaysknowhow todesirethetruth.
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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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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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You risk just as much in being credulous as in being suspicious.
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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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It is not the man who is beside himself, but he who is cool and collected,--who is master of his countenance, of his voice, of his actions, of his gestures, of every part of his play,--who can work upon others at his pleasure.
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Disturbances in society are never more fearful than when those who are stirring up the trouble can use the pretext of religion to mask their true designs.
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Gaiety is a quality of ordinary men. Genius always presupposes some disorder in the machine.
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How easy it is to tell tales!
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