Quote

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

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
Love
Free
Mad
Thinking
Funny
Honesty
Wantonly
Idea
Questions
Rove
Give
Taste
Harlots
May
Present
Rein
Ideas
Philosophy
Reins
Giving
Wise
Discuss
Mind
Politics
Thoughtful

More quotes by Denis Diderot

Image
Good music is very close to primitive language.
Denis Diderot
Image
When shall we see poets born? After a time of disasters and great misfortunes, when harrowed nations begin to breathe again. And then, shaken by the terror of such spectacles, imaginations will paint things entirely strange to those who have not witnessed them.
Denis Diderot
Image
At an early age I sucked up the milk of Homer, Virgil, Horace, Terence, Anacreon, Plato and Euripides, diluted with that of Moses and the prophets.
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
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
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.
Denis Diderot
Image
There are cats and cats.
Denis Diderot
Image
Two qualities essential for the artist: moralityand perspective.
Denis Diderot
Image
Instinct guides the animal better than the man. In the animal it is pure, in man it is led astray by his reason and intelligence.
Denis Diderot
Image
There is no good father who would want to resemble our Heavenly Father.
Denis Diderot
Image
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.
Denis Diderot
Image
I feel, I think, I judge therefore, a part of organized matter like me is capable of feeling, thinking, and judging.
Denis Diderot
Image
A thing is not proved just because no one has ever questioned it. What has never been gone into impartially has never been properly gone into. Hence scepticism is the first step toward truth. It must be applied generally, because it is the touchstone.
Denis Diderot
Image
Which is the greater merit, to enlighten the human race, which remains forever, or to save one's fatherland, which is perishable?
Denis Diderot
Image
There is only one passion, the passion for happiness.
Denis Diderot
Image
The blood of Jesus Christ can cover a multitude of sins, it seems to me.
Denis Diderot
Image
Mankind have banned the Divinity from their presence they have relegated him to a sanctuary the walls of the temple restrict his view he does not exist outside of it.
Denis Diderot
Image
In order to get as much fame as one's father one has to much more able than he.
Denis Diderot
Image
One must be oneself very little of a philosopher not to feel that the finest privilege of our reason consists in not believing in anything by the impulsion of a blind and mechanical instinct, and that it is to dishonour reason to put it in bonds as the Chaldeans did. Man is born to think for himself.
Denis Diderot
Image
When one compares the talents one has with those of a Leibniz , one is tempted to throw away one's books and go die quietly in the dark of some forgotten corner.
Denis Diderot