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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.

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
Sky
Distance
Infinite
Madder
Building
Inhabitants
Stop
Separating
Earth
Tower
Firsts
Towers
First
Plain

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If there were a reason for preferring the Christian religion to natural religion, it would be because the former offers us, on the nature of God and man, enlightenment that the latter lacks. Now, this is not at all the case for Christianity, instead of clarifying, gives rise to an infinite multitude of obscurities and difficulties.
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My friend, you should blow out your candle in order to find your way more clearly.
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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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Which is the greater merit, to enlighten the human race, which remains forever, or to save one's fatherland, which is perishable?
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Scepticism is the first step towards truth.
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There is no moral precept that does not have something inconvenient about it.
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The world is the house of the strong.
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First of all move me, surprise me, rend my heart make me tremble, weep, shudder outrage me delight my eyes afterwards if you can.
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There is only one virtue, justice only one duty, to be happy only one corollary, not to overvalue life and not to fear death.
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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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Good music is very close to primitive language.
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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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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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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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No man has received from nature the right to give orders to others. Freedom is a gift from heaven, and every individual of the same species has the right to enjoy it as soon as he is in enjoyment of his reason.
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La poe sie veutquelque chose d'e norme, debarbare et de sauvage. Poetry needs something on the scale of the grand, the barbarous, the savage.
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There is less harm to be suffered in being mad among madmen than in being sane all by oneself.
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The bad gives rise to the good, the good inspires the better, the better produces the excellent, the excellent is followed by the bizarre
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