Denis Diderot Quotes
Denis Diderot was a French Enlightenment philosopher, novelist, and art critic, and the chief editor of the Encyclopedie, a vast collaborative work that aimed to gather and propagate the rational knowledge of the age. Over more than twenty years, in the face of censorship and the temporary loss of his collaborators, he saw the project through to completion. The quotes below are attributed to Denis Diderot, organized by topic.
Browse Denis Diderot by topic
Denis Diderot on Death
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“Dying words of Nicholas Saunderson as portrayed in Lettre sur les aveugles [ Letter on the Blind ] (1749)”
What is this world? A complex whole, subject to endless revolutions. All these revolutions show a continual tendency to destruction; a swift succession of beings who follow one another, press forward, and vanish; a fleeting symmetry; the order of a moment. I reproached you just now with estimating the perfection of things by your own capacity; and I might accuse you here of measuring its duration -
“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.”
Oeuvres complètes , vol. 7, p. 678
Denis Diderot on God
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“If you want me to believe in God , you must make me touch him.”
Portraying a fictional conversation of Nicholas Saunderson with a priest, in ' Lettre sur les aveugles [ Letter about the Blind ] (1749), as quoted in Diderot and the Encyclopædists (1897) by John Morley, p. 92. Publication of this work resulted in Diderot being arrested and imprisoned.
Denis Diderot on Happiness
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“There is only one passion, the passion for happiness.”
Will, Freedom
Denis Diderot on Knowledge
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“The first step towards philosophy is incredulity.”
Scepticism is the first step towards truth. -
“Portraying a fictional conversation of Nicholas Saunderson with a priest, in ' Lettre sur les aveugles [ Letter about the Blind ] (1749), as quoted in Diderot and the Encyclopædists (1897) by John Morley, p. 92. Publication of this work resulted in Diderot being arrested and imprisoned.”
If you want me to believe in God , you must make me touch him. -
“Lettre sur les aveugles [ Letter on the Blind ] (1749)”
As to all the outward signs that awaken within us feelings of sympathy and compassion, the blind are only affected by crying; I suspect them in general of lacking humanity. What difference is there for a blind man, between a man who is urinating, and man who, without crying out, is bleeding? And we ourselves, do we not cease to commiserate, when the distance or the smallness of the objects in ques -
“Only a very bad theologian would confuse the certainty that follows revelation with the truths that are revealed. They are entirely different things.”
Apology for the Abbé de Prades (1752) -
“Apology for the Abbé de Prades (1752)”
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 on Mind
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Attributed to Denis Diderot:
“We are all instruments endowed with feeling and memory. Our senses are so many keys struck by the nature surrounding us, and which often strike themselves.”
Denis Diderot on Nature
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“What is this world of ours? A complex entity subject to sudden changes which all indicate a tendency to destruction; a swift succession of beings which follow one another, assert themselves and disappear; a fleeting symmetry; a momentary order.”
What is this world? A complex whole, subject to endless revolutions. All these revolutions show a continual tendency to destruction; a swift succession of beings who follow one another, press forward, and vanish; a fleeting symmetry; the order of a moment. I reproached you just now with estimating the perfection of things by your own capacity; and I might accuse you here of measuring its duration
Denis Diderot on Politics
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“From fanaticism to barbarism is only one step.”
Essai sur le Mérite de la Vertu (1745); a translation and adaptation of Inquiry concerning Virtue or Merit (1699) by Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury
Denis Diderot on Truth
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“Skepticism is the first step toward truth.”
Scepticism is the first step towards truth. -
“Pithy sentences are like sharp nails which force truth upon our memory.”
As quoted in A Dictionary of Thoughts : Being a Cyclopedia of Laconic Quotations (1908) by Tryon Edwards , p. 338
Denis Diderot on Virtue
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“Essai sur le Mérite de la Vertu (1745); a translation and adaptation of Inquiry concerning Virtue or Merit (1699) by Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury”
From fanaticism to barbarism is only one step.