Quote

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.

Denis Diderot

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

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
Small
Passions
Passion
Raise
Moral
Raises
Art
Creativity
Sublimity
Soul
Return
Infancy
Without
Becomes
Returns
Great
Virtue
Morals
Things
Either
Minded

More quotes by Denis Diderot

Image
The bad gives rise to the good, the good inspires the better, the better produces the excellent, the excellent is followed by the bizarre
Denis Diderot
Image
The pit of a theatre is the one place where the tears of virtuous and wicked men alike are mingled.
Denis Diderot
Image
He whom we call a gentleman is no longer the man of Nature.
Denis Diderot
Image
My friend, you should blow out your candle in order to find your way more clearly.
Denis Diderot
Image
Justice is the first virtue of those who command, and stops the complaints of those who obey.
Denis Diderot
Image
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.
Denis Diderot
Image
Posterity for the philosopher is what the other world is for the religious man.
Denis Diderot
Image
Only a very bad theologian would confuse the certainty that follows revelation with the truths that are revealed. They are entirely different things.
Denis Diderot
Image
The possibility of divorce renders both marriage partners stricter in their observance of the duties they owe to each other. Divorces help to improve morals and to increase the population.
Denis Diderot
Image
Anyone who takes it upon himself, on his private authority, to break a bad law, thereby authorizes everyone else to break the good ones.
Denis Diderot
Image
A thing is not proved because no one has ever questioned it... Skepticism is the first step toward truth.
Denis Diderot
Image
If there are one hundred thousand damned souls for one saved soul, the devil has always the advantage without having given up his son to death.
Denis Diderot
Image
There is less harm to be suffered in being mad among madmen than in being sane all by oneself.
Denis Diderot
Image
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.
Denis Diderot
Image
It is very important not to mistake hemlock for parsley, but to believe or not believe in God is not important at all.
Denis Diderot
Image
The wisest among us is very lucky never to have met the woman, be she beautiful or ugly, intelligent or stupid, who could drive him crazy enough to be fit to be put into an asylum.
Denis Diderot
Image
There is no moral precept that does not have something inconvenient about it.
Denis Diderot
Image
Every man has his dignity. I'm willing to forget mine, but at my own discretion and not when someone else tells me to.
Denis Diderot
Image
Bad company is as instructive as licentiousness. One makes up for the loss of one's innocence with the loss of one's prejudices.
Denis Diderot
Image
I can be expected to look for truth but not to find it.
Denis Diderot