What is a monster? A being whose survival is incompatible with the existing order.
DENIS DIDEROTWhat is a monster? A being whose survival is incompatible with the existing order.
DENIS DIDEROTGaiety is a quality of ordinary men. Genius always presupposes some disorder in the machine.
DENIS DIDEROTIt is very important not to mistake hemlock for parsley, but to believe or not believe in God is not important at all.
DENIS DIDEROTI 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.
DENIS DIDEROTThe blood of Jesus Christ can cover a multitude of sins, it seems to me.
DENIS DIDEROTWe are far more liable to catch the vices than the virtues of our associates.
DENIS DIDEROTOnly God and some few rare geniuses can keep forging ahead into novelty.
DENIS DIDEROTIt is said that desire is a product of the will, but the converse is in fact true: will is a product of desire.
DENIS DIDEROTDoctors are always working to preserve our health and cooks to destroy it, but the latter are the more often successful.
DENIS DIDEROTIf 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 DIDEROTWhich is the greater merit, to enlighten the human race, which remains forever, or to save one’s fatherland, which is perishable?
DENIS DIDEROTDoes not vanity itself cease to be blamable, is it not even ennobled, when it is directed to laudable objects, when it confines itself to prompting us to great and generous actions?
DENIS DIDEROTAlthough a man may wear fine clothing, if he lives peacefully; and is good, self-possessed, has faith and is pure; and if he does not hurt any living being, he is a holy man.
DENIS DIDEROTI have only a small flickering light to guide me in the darkness of a thick forest. Up comes a theologian and blows it out.
DENIS DIDEROTMy ideas are my whores.
DENIS DIDEROTThe pit of a theatre is the one place where the tears of virtuous and wicked men alike are mingled.
DENIS DIDEROT