110+ Denis Diderot Quotes On Religion, Encyclopedic And Revolutionary

Denis Diderot was a French editor, philosopher, and writer who lived in the 18th century. He is best known for being the editor-in-chief of the Encyclopédie, a comprehensive encyclopedia of the sciences, arts, and trades, which he compiled with the help of many other contributors. He also wrote several philosophical works, including the novel Rameau's Nephew. Following is our collection on famous quotes by Denis Diderot on religion, encyclopedic, revolutionary.

Top 10 Denis Diderot Quotes

1. We swallow greedily any lie that flatters us, but we sip only little by little at a truth we find bitter.
2. Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.
3. Disturbances in society are never more fearful than when those who are stirring up the trouble can use the pretext of religion to mask their true designs.
4. Those who fear the facts will forever try to discredit the fact-finders.
5. Pithy sentences are like sharp nails which force truth upon our memory.
6. Oh! how near are genius and madness! Men imprison them and chain them, or raise statues to them.
7. Although 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.
8. Doctors are always working to preserve our health and cooks to destroy it, but the latter are the more often successful.
9. From fanaticism to barbarism is only one step.
10. There is only one passion, the passion for happiness.

Denis Diderot Image Quotes

Pithy sentences are like sharp nails which force truth upon our memory. — Denis Diderot

Denis Diderot Short Quotes

• Give, but, if possible, spare the poor man the shame of begging.
• Distance is a great promoter of admiration!
• Poetry must have something in it that is barbaric, vast and wild.
• Only passions, great passions can elevate the soul to great things.
• Isn't it better to have men being ungrateful than to miss a chance to do good?
• Justice is the first virtue of those who command, and stops the complaints of those who obey.
• If you want me to believe in God, you must make me touch him.
• I have often seen an actor laugh off the stage, but I don't remember ever having seen one weep.
• There's a bit of testicle at the bottom of our most sublime feelings and our purest tenderness.
• All abstract sciences are nothing but the study of relations between signs.

Denis Diderot Quotes About Religion

A thing is not proved just because no one has ever questioned it. What has never been gone into impartially has never been properly gone into. Hence scepticism is the first step toward truth. It must be applied generally, because it is the touchstone. — Denis Diderot

The most dangerous madmen are those created by religion, and people whose aim is to disrupt society always know how to make good use of them on occasion. — Denis Diderot

The Christian religion teaches us to imitate a God that is cruel, insidious, jealous, and implacable in his wrath. — Denis Diderot

Scepticism is the first step towards truth. — Denis Diderot

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

There is not a Musselman alive who would not imagine that he was performing an action pleasing to God and his Holy Prophet by exterminating every Christian on earth, while the Christians are scarcely more tolerant on their side. — Denis Diderot

I 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 Diderot

Philosophy is as far separated from impiety as religion is from fanaticism. — Denis Diderot

Mankind have banned the Divinity from their presence; they have relegated him to a sanctuary; the walls of the temple restrict his view; he does not exist outside of it. — Denis Diderot

Denis Diderot Quotes About Genius

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

Genius is present in every age, but the men carrying it within them remain benumbed unless extraordinary events occur to heat up and melt the mass so that it flows forth. — Denis Diderot

Gaiety is a quality of ordinary men. Genius always presupposes some disorder in the machine. — Denis Diderot

Gaiety --a quality of ordinary men. Genius always presupposes some disorder in the machine. — Denis Diderot

Only God and some few rare geniuses can keep forging ahead into novelty. — Denis Diderot

The general interest of the masses might take the place of the insight of genius if it were allowed freedom of action. — Denis Diderot

Evil always turns up in this world through some genius or other. — Denis Diderot

Denis Diderot Quotes About World

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

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

The world is the house of the strong. — Denis Diderot

Do you see this egg? With this you can topple every theological theory, every church or temple in the world. — Denis Diderot

What a fine comedy this world would be if one did not play a part in it. — Denis Diderot

If the weather is too cold or rainy, I take shelter in the Regence Cafe, where I entertain myself by watching chess being played. Paris is the world center, and this cafe is the Paris centre for the finest skill at this game. — Denis Diderot

Posterity for the philosopher is what the other world is for the religious man. — Denis Diderot

Denis Diderot Quotes About Nature

It is not human nature we should accuse but the despicable conventions that pervert it. — Denis Diderot

The good of the people must be the great purpose of government. By the laws of nature and of reason, the governors are invested with power to that end. And the greatest good of the people is liberty. It is to the state what health is to the individual. — Denis Diderot

They mistake the first manifestations of a developing sexual nature for the voice of God calling them to Himself; and it is precisely when nature is inciting them that they embrace a fashion of life contrary to nature's wish. — Denis Diderot

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. — Denis Diderot

To prove the Gospels by a miracle is to prove an absurdity by something contrary to nature. — Denis Diderot

Those authors into whose hands nature has placed a magic wand, with which they no sooner touch us than we forget the unhappiness in life, than the darkness leaves our soul, and we are reconciled to existence, should be placed among the benefactors of the human race. — Denis Diderot

He whom we call a gentleman is no longer the man of Nature. — Denis Diderot

Denis Diderot Quotes About Truth

What has not been examined impartially has not been well examined. Skepticism is therefore the first step towards truth. — Denis Diderot

A thing is not proved because no one has ever questioned it... Skepticism is the first step toward truth. — Denis Diderot

Sentences are like sharp nails, which force truth upon our memories. — Denis Diderot

Ignorance is less remote from the truth than prejudice. — Denis Diderot

We swallow with one gulp the lie that flatters us, and drink drop by drop the truth which is bitter to us. — Denis Diderot

Whether God exists or does not exist, He has come to rank among the most sublime and useless truths. — Denis Diderot

Le public ne sait pas toujours de sirer le vrai. Thepublicdoesnot alwaysknowhow todesirethetruth. — Denis Diderot

One may demand of me that I should seek truth, but not that I should find it — Denis Diderot

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

If ever anybody dedicated his whole life to the "enthusiasm for truth and justice" using this phrase in the good sense it was Diderot. — Denis Diderot

Denis Diderot Quotes About People

There is no true sovereign except the nation; there can be no true legislator except the people. — Denis Diderot

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

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

Happiest are the people who give most happiness to others. — Denis Diderot

A nation which thinks that it is belief in God and not good law which makes people honest does not seem to me very advanced. — Denis Diderot

Denis Diderot Famous Quotes And Sayings

Pithy sentences are like sharp nails which force truth upon our memory. — Denis Diderot

I picture the vast realm of the sciences as an immense landscape scattered with patches of dark and light. The goal towards which we must work is either to extend the boundaries of the patches of light, or to increase their number. One of these tasks falls to the creative genius; the other requires a sort of sagacity combined with perfectionism. — Denis Diderot

What a hell of an economic system! Some are replete with everything while others, whose stomachs are no less demanding, whose hunger is just as recurrent, have nothing to bite on. The worst of it is the constrained posture need puts you in. The needy man does not walk like the rest; he skips, slithers, twists, crawls. — Denis Diderot

The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has killed a great many philosophers. — Denis Diderot

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

To describe women, the pen should be dipped in the humid colors of the rainbow, and the paper dried with the dust gathered from the wings of a butterfly. — Denis Diderot

Wandering in a vast forest at night, I have only a faint light to guide me. A stranger appears and says to me: 'My friend, you should blow out your candle in order to find your way more clearly.' This stranger is a theologian. — Denis Diderot

First move me, astonish me, break my heart, let me tremble, weep, stare, be enraged-only then regale my eyes. — Denis Diderot

First of all move me, surprise me, rend my heart; make me tremble, weep, shudder; outrage me; delight my eyes afterwards if you can. — Denis Diderot

But if you will recall the history of our civil troubles, you will see half the nation bathe itself, out of piety, in the blood of the other half, and violate the fundamental feelings of humanity in order to sustain the cause of God: as though it were necessary to cease to be a man in order to prove oneself religious! — Denis Diderot

There is no kind of harassment that a man may not inflict on a woman with impunity in civilized societies. — Denis Diderot

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

We are all instruments endowed with feeling and memory. Our senses are so many strings that are struck by surrounding objects and that also frequently strike themselves. — Denis Diderot

When superstition is allowed to perform the task of old age in dulling the human temperament, we can say goodbye to all excellence in poetry, in painting, and in music. — Denis Diderot

Patriotism is an ephemeral motive that scarcely ever outlasts the particular threat to society that aroused it. — 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

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

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

The following general definition of an animal: a system of different organic molecules that have combined with one another, under the impulsion of a sensation similar to an obtuse and muffled sense of touch given to them by the creator of matter as a whole, until each one of them has found the most suitable position for its shape and comfort. — Denis Diderot

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

Fanaticism is just one step away from barbarism. — Denis Diderot

Only passions, and great passions, can raise the soul to great things. Without them there is no sublimity, either in morals or in creativity. Art returns to infancy, and virtue becomes small-minded. — Denis Diderot

If there is one realm in which it is essential to be sublime, it is in wickedness. You spit on a petty thief, but you can't deny a kind of respect for the great criminal. — Denis Diderot

If 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 Diderot

Every man has his dignity. I'm willing to forget mine, but at my own discretion and not when someone else tells me to. — Denis Diderot

The blood of Jesus Christ can cover a multitude of sins, it seems to me. — Denis Diderot

The philosopher forms his principles on an infinity of particular observations. He does not confuse truth with plausibility, he takes for truth what is true, for false what is false, for doubtful what is doubtful, and probable what is probable. The philosophical spirit is thus a spirit of observation and accuracy. — Denis Diderot

The infant runs toward it with its eyes closed, the adult is stationary, the old man approaches it with his back turned. — Denis Diderot

If a misplaced admiration shows imbecility, an affected criticism shows vice of character. Expose thyself rather to appear a beast than false. — Denis Diderot

How old the world is! I walk between two eternities.... What is my fleeting existence in comparison with that decaying rock, that valley digging its channel ever deeper, that forest that is tottering and those great masses above my head about to fall? I see the marble of tombs crumbling into dust; and yet I don't want to die! — Denis Diderot

It is not the man who is beside himself, but he who is cool and collected,--who is master of his countenance, of his voice, of his actions, of his gestures, of every part of his play,--who can work upon others at his pleasure. — Denis Diderot

Good music is very close to primitive language. — Denis Diderot

There is no moral precept that does not have something inconvenient about it. — Denis Diderot

There is less harm to be suffered in being mad among madmen than in being sane all by oneself. — Denis Diderot

When science, art, literature, and philosophy are simply the manifestation of personality they are on a level where glorious and dazzling achievements are possible, which can make a man's name live for thousands of years. — Denis Diderot

I 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. — Denis Diderot

The best doctor is the one you run to and can't find. — Denis Diderot

The God of the Christians is a father who makes much of his apples, and very little of his children. — Denis Diderot

The possibility of divorce renders both marriage partners stricter in their observance of the duties they owe to each other. Divorces help to improve morals and to increase the population. — Denis Diderot

If exclusive privileges were not granted, and if the financial system would not tend to concentrate wealth, there would be few great fortunes and no quick wealth. When the means of growing rich is divided between a greater number of citizens, wealth will also be more evenly distributed; extreme poverty and extreme wealth would be also rare. — Denis Diderot

If there were a reason for preferring the Christian religion to natural religion, it would be because the former offers us, on the nature of God and man, enlightenment that the latter lacks. Now, this is not at all the case; for Christianity, instead of clarifying, gives rise to an infinite multitude of obscurities and difficulties. — Denis Diderot

One must be oneself very little of a philosopher not to feel that the finest privilege of our reason consists in not believing in anything by the impulsion of a blind and mechanical instinct, and that it is to dishonour reason to put it in bonds as the Chaldeans did. Man is born to think for himself. — Denis Diderot

The wisest among us is very lucky never to have met the woman, be she beautiful or ugly, intelligent or stupid, who could drive him crazy enough to be fit to be put into an asylum. — Denis Diderot

If you disturb the colors of the rainbow, the rainbow is no longer beautiful. — Denis Diderot

Man was born to live with his fellow human beings. Separate him, isolate him, his character will go bad, a thousand ridiculous affects will invade his heart, extravagant thoughts will germinate in his brain, like thorns in an uncultivated land. — Denis Diderot

The pit of a theatre is the one place where the tears of virtuous and wicked men alike are mingled. — Denis Diderot

The decisions of law courts should never be printed: in the long run, they form a counter authority to the law. — Denis Diderot

To say that man is a compound of strength and weakness, light and darkness, smallness and greatness, is not to indict him, it is to define him. — Denis Diderot

At an early age I sucked up the milk of Homer, Virgil, Horace, Terence, Anacreon, Plato and Euripides, diluted with that of Moses and the prophets. — Denis Diderot

His hands would plait the priests guts, if he had no rope, to strangle kings. — Denis Diderot

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

Which is the greater merit, to enlighten the human race, which remains forever, or to save one's fatherland, which is perishable? — Denis Diderot

There are three principal means of acquiring knowledge available to us: observation of nature, reflection, and experimentation. Observation collects facts; reflection combines them; experimentation verifies the result of that combination. 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

If your little savage were left to himself and be allowed to retain all his ignorance, he would in time join the infant's reasoning to the grown man's passion, he would strangle his father and sleep with his mother. — Denis Diderot

Anyone who takes it upon himself, on his private authority, to break a bad law, thereby authorizes everyone else to break the good ones. — Denis Diderot

The first promise exchanged by two beings of flesh was at the foot of a rock that was crumbling into dust; they took as witness for their constancy a sky that is not the same for a single instant; everything changed in them and around them, and they believed their hearts free of vicissitudes. O children! always children! — Denis Diderot

One composition is meagre, though it has many figures; another is rich, though it has few. — Denis Diderot

As long as the centuries continue to unfold, the number of books will grow continually, and one can predict that a time will come when it will be almost as difficult to learn anything from books as from the direct study of the whole universe. It will be almost as convenient to search for some bit of truth concealed in nature as it will be to find it hidden away in an immense multitude of bound volumes. — Denis Diderot

My ideas are my whores. — Denis Diderot

Tous les jours on couche avec des femmes qu'on n'aime pas, et l'on ne couche pas avec des femmes qu'on aime. Every day we sleep with women we do not love and don't sleep with the women we do love. — Denis Diderot

Life Lessons by Denis Diderot

1. Denis Diderot taught us to think for ourselves and to challenge the status quo. He believed that knowledge should be shared and that it was the responsibility of intellectuals to help the public understand the world around them.
2. He was an advocate for free thought and encouraged people to be open-minded and to question authority. He believed that knowledge was power and that it could be used to create a better society.
3. He also taught us the importance of perseverance and hard work. He worked tirelessly to publish his Encyclopedia, which was a major achievement in the history of knowledge.