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There are things I can’t force. I must adjust. There are times when the greatest change needed is a change of my viewpoint.

Denis Diderot

Does 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 DIDEROT

Action Direction Generous Object
Our observation of nature must be diligent, our reflection profound, and our experiments exact. We rarely see these three means combined; and for this reason, creative geniuses are not common.
DENIS DIDEROT

Creative Experiment Genius Nature Observation
Ignorance is less remote from the truth than prejudice.
DENIS DIDEROT

Ignorance Prejudice Remote Truth
In general, children, like men, and men, like children, prefer entertainment to education.
DENIS DIDEROT

Children Education Entertainment Man Preference
No man has received from nature the right to command his fellow human beings.
DENIS DIDEROT

Command Himself Man Nature Right
Watch out for the fellow who talks about putting things in order! Putting things in order always means getting other people under your control.
DENIS DIDEROT

Control Order People Yourself
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

Build Distance Infinite Mad Plain Separate Tower
All abstract sciences are nothing but the study of relations between signs.
DENIS DIDEROT

Abstract Relationship Sign Study
Oh! how near are genius and madness! Men imprison them and chain them, or raise statues to them.
DENIS DIDEROT

Genius Madness Raise Status
Gaiety is a quality of ordinary men. Genius always presupposes some disorder in the machine.
DENIS DIDEROT

Machine Order Ordinary Quality
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.
DENIS DIDEROT

Anand Thakur
Scepticism is the first step toward truth.
DENIS DIDEROT

Path Step Truth
Doctors are always working to preserve our health and cooks to destroy it, but the latter are the more often successful.
DENIS DIDEROT

Destroy Doctor Preserve Success Work
There is no true sovereign except the nation; there can be no true legislator except the people.
DENIS DIDEROT

Anand Thakur
There is no good father who would want to resemble our Heavenly Father.
DENIS DIDEROT

Anand Thakur
The bad gives rise to the good, the good inspires the better, the better produces the excellent, the excellent is followed by the bizarre
DENIS DIDEROT

Anand Thakur
Skepticism is the first step on the road to philosophy.
DENIS DIDEROT

Philosophy Road
The world is the house of the strong.
DENIS DIDEROT

Hard Time Inspirational Strong World
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

Each Other Life Trouble Yourself
The God of the Christians is a father who makes much of his apples, and very little of his children.
DENIS DIDEROT

Children Father God Himself
All children are essentially criminal.
DENIS DIDEROT

Children Crime Essential
There’s a bit of testicle at the bottom of our most sublime feelings and our purest tenderness.
DENIS DIDEROT

Anand Thakur
Gratitude is a burden, and every burden is made to be shaken off.
DENIS DIDEROT

Burden Gratitude Hard Time Hope
Bad company is as instructive as licentiousness. One makes up for the loss of one’s innocence with the loss of one’s prejudices.
DENIS DIDEROT

Bad Company Innocent Instruction Loss One Prejudice
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

Animal Guide Instinct Intelligence Reason
To prove the Gospels by a miracle is to prove an absurdity by something contrary to nature.
DENIS DIDEROT

Anand Thakur
What a fine comedy this world would be if one did not play a part in it.
DENIS DIDEROT

Comedy Oneself Play World

There are things I can’t force. I must adjust. There are times when the greatest change needed is a change of my viewpoint.

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There are things I can’t force. I must adjust. There are times when the greatest change needed is a change of my viewpoint.

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Popular Authors

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