A thing is not proved because no one has ever questioned it. Skepticism is the first step toward truth.
DENIS DIDEROTI 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.
More Denis Diderot Quotes
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To prove the Gospels by a miracle is to prove an absurdity by something contrary to nature.
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There is only one passion, the passion for happiness.
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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.
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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 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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Scepticism is the first step toward truth.
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In order to shake a hypothesis, it is sometimes not necessary to do anything more than push it as far as it will go.
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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.
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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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When we know to read our own hearts, we acquire wisdom of the heartsof others.
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The God of the Christians is a father who makes much of his apples, and very little of his children.
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Poetry needs something on the scale of the grand, the barbarous, the savage.
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Scepticism is the first step towards truth.
DENIS DIDEROT -
My ideas are my whores.
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We swallow with one gulp the lie that flatters us, and drink drop by drop the truth which is bitter to us.
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Only a very bad theologian would confuse the certainty that follows revelation with the truths that are revealed. They are entirely different things.
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If a misplaced admiration shows imbecility, an affected criticism shows vice of character. Expose thyself rather to appear a beast than false.
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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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I like better for one to say some foolish thing upon important matters than to be silent. That becomes the subject of discussion and dispute, and the truth is discovered.
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Time, matter, space – all, it may be, are no more than a point.
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Gaiety is a quality of ordinary men. Genius always presupposes some disorder in the machine.
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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.
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From fanaticism to barbarism is only one step.
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The decisions of law courts should never be printed: in the long run, they form a counter authority to the law.
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I have not the hope of being immortal, because the desire of it has not given me that vanity.
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The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has killed a great many philosophers.
DENIS DIDEROT