Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.
—Denis Diderot
Topics: Government
The pit of a theatre is the one place where the tears of virtuous and wicked men alike are mingled.
—Denis Diderot
Topics: Theater
People praise virtue, but they hate it, they run away from it. It freezes you to death, and in this world you’ve got to keep your feet warm.
—Denis Diderot
Topics: Virtues, Virtue
It is said that desire is a product of the will, but the converse is in fact true: will is a product of desire.
—Denis Diderot
Topics: Desire, Desires
The infant runs toward it with its eyes closed, the adult is stationary, the old man approaches it with his back turned.
—Denis Diderot
Topics: Dying, Death
The arbitrary rule of a just and enlightened prince is always bad. His virtues are the most dangerous and the surest form of seduction: they lull a people imperceptibly into the habit of loving, respecting, and serving his successor, whoever that successor may be, no matter how wicked or stupid.
—Denis Diderot
Topics: Tyranny
Morals are in all countries the result of legislation and government; they are not African or Asian or European: they are good or bad.
—Denis Diderot
Topics: Morality, Morals
Doctors are always working to preserve our health and cooks to destroy it, but the latter are the more often successful.
—Denis Diderot
Topics: Health
To attempt the destruction of our passions is the height of folly. What a noble aim is that of the zealot who tortures himself like a madman in order to desire nothing, love nothing, feel nothing, and who, if he succeeded, would end up a complete monster!
—Denis Diderot
Topics: Poverty
The general interest of the masses might take the place of the insight of genius if it were allowed freedom of action.
—Denis Diderot
The world is the house of the strong. I shall not know until the end what I have lost or won in this place, in this vast gambling den where I have spent more than sixty years, dicebox in hand, shaking the dice.
—Denis Diderot
Topics: Gambling
There is only one passion, the passion for happiness.
—Denis Diderot
Topics: Passion
His hands would plait the priests guts, if he had no rope, to strangle kings.
—Denis Diderot
We swallow greedily any lie that flatters us, but we sip only little by little at a truth we find bitter.
—Denis Diderot
You risk just as much in being credulous as in being suspicious.
—Denis Diderot
Topics: Danger, Risk
The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has killed a great many philosophers.
—Denis Diderot
Topics: Philosophers, Science, Philosophy
Only passions, great passions, can elevate the soul to great things.
—Denis Diderot
Topics: Passion, Romance, Enthusiasm
Pithy sentences are like sharp nails which force truth upon our memory.
—Denis Diderot
Topics: Justice, Proverbial Wisdom
We are far more liable to catch the vices than the virtues of our associates.
—Denis Diderot
Topics: Vice
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.
—Denis Diderot
Topics: Silence
Patriotism is an ephemeral motive that scarcely ever outlasts the particular threat to society that aroused it.
—Denis Diderot
Topics: Patriotism
Distance is a great promoter of admiration!.
—Denis Diderot
Topics: Admiration
Black-letter record of the ages.
—Denis Diderot
In order to shake a hypothesis, it is sometimes not necessary to do anything more than push it as far as it will go.
—Denis Diderot
Topics: Theory, Assumptions
It is the man who is cool and collected, who is master of his countenance, his voice, his actions, his gestures, of every part, who can work upon others at his pleasure.
—Denis Diderot
Topics: Self-Control
I have often seen an actor laugh off the stage, but I don’t remember ever having seen one weep.
—Denis Diderot
Topics: Actors, Acting
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
Topics: Religion
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
Topics: Order
Virtue is praised, but hated. People run from it, for it is ice-cold and in this world you have to keep your feet warm.
—Denis Diderot
Topics: Virtue
All abstract sciences are nothing but the study of relations between signs.
—Denis Diderot
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
- Voltaire French Philosopher, Author
- Georges Bataille French Essayist, Intellectual
- Marquis de Sade French Writer
- Albert Camus Algerian-born French Philosopher
- Jean-Paul Sartre French Philosopher
- Simone de Beauvoir French Philosopher
- Roland Barthes French Literary Theorist
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau French Philosopher
- Michel de Montaigne French Essayist
- Pierre Teilhard de Chardin French Jesuit Scientist
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