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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

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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
Ever
Firsts
Questioned
First
Skepticism
Thing
Proved
Step
Toward
Steps
Truth

More quotes by Denis Diderot

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The Christian religion teaches us to imitate a God that is cruel, insidious, jealous, and implacable in his wrath.
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We swallow greedily any lie that flatters us, but we sip only little by little at a truth we find bitter.
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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.
Denis Diderot
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No man has received from nature the right to command his fellow human beings.
Denis Diderot
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Scepticism is the first step toward truth.
Denis Diderot
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What has not been examined impartially has not been well examined. Skepticism is therefore the first step towards truth.
Denis Diderot
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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.
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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Morals are in all countries the result of legislation and government they are not African or Asian or European: they are good or bad.
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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How easy it is to tell tales!
Denis Diderot
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Time, matter, space - all, it may be, are no more than a point.
Denis Diderot
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There is no good father who would want to resemble our Heavenly Father.
Denis Diderot
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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!
Denis Diderot
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Only the bad man is alone.
Denis Diderot
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There are cats and cats.
Denis Diderot
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To describe women, the pen should be dipped in the humid colors of the rainbow, and the paper dried with the dust gathered from the wings of a butterfly.
Denis Diderot
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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.
Denis Diderot
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Posterity for the philosopher is what the other world is for the religious man.
Denis Diderot
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Evil always turns up in this world through some genius or other.
Denis Diderot