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

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There is only one passion, the passion for happiness.
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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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Morals are in all countries the result of legislation and government they are not African or Asian or European: they are good or bad.
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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.
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How easy it is to tell tales!
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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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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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Gratitude is a burden, and every burden is made to be shaken off.
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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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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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Isn't it better to have men being ungrateful than to miss a chance to do good?
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In any country where talent and virtue produce no advancement, money will be the national god. Its inhabitants will either have to possess money or make others believe that they do. Wealth will be the highest virtue, poverty the greatest vice.
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From fanaticism to barbarism is only one step.
Denis Diderot
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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.
Denis Diderot
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There is no moral precept that does not have something inconvenient about it.
Denis Diderot
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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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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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There's a bit of testicle at the bottom of our most sublime feelings and our purest tenderness.
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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A thing is not proved because no one has ever questioned it... Skepticism is the first step toward truth.
Denis Diderot