The pit of a theatre is the one place where the tears of virtuous and wicked men alike are mingled.
DENIS DIDEROTTo say that man is a compound of strength and weakness, light and darkness, smallness and greatness, is not to indict him, it is to define him.
More Denis Diderot Quotes
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When we know to read our own hearts, we acquire wisdom of the heartsof others.
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It is said that desire is a product of the will, but the converse is in fact true: will is a product of desire.
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Posterity for the philosopher is what the other world is for the religious man.
DENIS DIDEROT -
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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We are far more liable to catch the vices than the virtues of our associates.
DENIS DIDEROT -
My ideas are my whores.
DENIS DIDEROT -
In general, children, like men, and men, like children, prefer entertainment to education.
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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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First move me, astonish me, break my heart, let me tremble, weep, stare, be enraged-only then regale my eyes.
DENIS DIDEROT -
Gaiety is a quality of ordinary men. Genius always presupposes some disorder in the machine.
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Distance is a great promoter of admiration.
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We are all instruments endowed with feeling and memory. Our senses are so many strings that are struck by surrounding objects and that also frequently strike themselves.
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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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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 -
I am wholly yours – you are everything to me; we will sustain each other in all the ills of life it may please fate to inflict upon us; you will soothe my troubles; I will comfort you in yours.
DENIS DIDEROT -
There is only one duty; that is to be happy.
DENIS DIDEROT -
How easy it is to tell tales!
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Genius is present in every age, but the men carrying it within them remain benumbed unless extraordinary events occur to heat up and melt the mass so that it flows forth.
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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.
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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 -
It has been said that love robs those who have it of their wit, and gives it to those who have none.
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The most dangerous madmen are those created by religion, and people whose aim is to disrupt society always know how to make good use of them on occasion.
DENIS DIDEROT -
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 -
Shakespeare’s fault is not the greatest into which a poet may fall. It merely indicates a deficiency of taste.
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Does anyone really know where they’re going to?
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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.
DENIS DIDEROT