Denis Diderot Quotes
1713 - 1784
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In order to shake a hypothesis, it is sometimes not necessary to do anything more than push it as far as it will go.
On the Interpretation of Nature, No. 30 (1753) 
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More Denis Diderot Quotes
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— c.1773 Jacques le fataliste et son ma|" tre (published1796).
There is no kind of harassment that a man may not inflict on a woman with impunity in civilized societies.
Denis Diderot— "On Women" (1772), as translated in Selected Writings (1966) edited by Lester G. Crocker
Impenetrable in their dissimulation, cruel in their vengeance, tenacious in their purposes, unscrupulous as to their methods, animated by profound and hidden hatred for the tyranny of man it is as though there exists among them an ever-present conspiracy toward domination, a sort of alliance like that subsisting among the priests of every country.
Denis Diderot— "On Women" (1772), as translated in Selected Writings (1966) edited by Lester G. Crocker
En ge ne ral, plus un peuple est civilise , poli, moins ses moeurs sont poe tiques; tout s'affaiblit en s'adoucissant. Ingeneral, themore civilized and refinedthepeople, the less poetic are its morals; everything weakens as it mellows.
Denis Diderot— 1758 Discours sur la poe sie dramatique.
La poe sie veutquelque chose d'e norme, debarbare et de sauvage. Poetry needs something on the scale of the grand, the barbarous, the savage.
Denis Diderot— 1758 Discours sur la poe sie dramatique.
Le public ne sait pas toujours de sirer le vrai. Thepublicdoesnot alwaysknowhow todesirethetruth.
Denis Diderot— 1758 Discours sur la poe sie dramatique.
Mes pense es sont mes catins. My thoughts are my prostitutes.
Denis Diderot— 1761-74 Le Neveu de Rameau.
From fanaticism to barbarism is only one step.
Denis Diderot— 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
If you want me to believe in God, you must make me touch him.
Denis Diderot— 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.
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.
Denis Diderot— Dying words of Nicholas Saunderson as portrayed in Lettre sur les aveugles [Letter on the Blind] (1749)
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.
Denis Diderot— Oeuvres complètes, vol. 7, p. 678.
It has been said that love robs those who have it of their wit, and gives it to those who have none.
Denis Diderot— Paradoxe sur le Comédien (1773-1777)
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— "Supplement to Bougainville's Voyage" (1796)
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— Ceci n’est pas un conte [This Is No Tale] (1796),
We are far more liable to catch the vices than the virtues of our associates.
Denis Diderot— As quoted in Thesaurus of Epigrams: A New Classified Collection of Witty Remarks, Bon Mots and Toasts (1942) by Edmund Fuller
Evil always turns up in this world through some genius or other.
Denis Diderot— As quoted in Dictionary of Foreign Quotations (1980) by Mary Collison, Robert L. Collison, p. 98
There is no moral precept that does not have something inconvenient about it.
Denis Diderot— As quoted in Dictionary of Foreign Quotations (1980) by Mary Collison, Robert L. Collison, p. 235
I believe in God, although I live very happily with atheists... It is very important not to mistake hemlock for parsley; but not at all so to believe or not in God.
Denis Diderot— As quoted in Against the Faith (1985) by Jim Herrick, p. 75Variant translation: It is very important not to mistake hemlock for parsley, but to believe or not believe in God is not important at all.
We are constantly railing against the passions; we ascribe to them all of man’s afflictions, and we forget that they are also the source of all his pleasures … But what provokes me is that only their adverse side is considered … and yet 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— As translated in Diderot (1977) by Otis Fellows, p. 39Variant translations:One declaims endlessly against the passions; one imputes all of man's suffering to them. One forgets that they are also the source of all his pleasures.Only passions, great passions, can elevate the soul to great things.
To prove the Gospels by a miracle is to prove an absurdity by something contrary to nature.
Denis Diderot— As quoted in The Anchor Book of French Quotations with English Translations (1963) by Norbert Gutermam
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— As quoted in The Anchor Book of French Quotations with English Translations (1963) by Norbert Gutermam
Je m’entretiens avec moi-même de politique, d’amour, de goût ou de philosophie:;; j’abandonne mon esprit à tout son libertinage:;; je le laisse maître de suivre la première idée sage ou folle qui se présente ... Mes pensées ce sont mes catins.
Denis Diderot— I discuss with myself questions of politics, love, taste, or philosophy. I let my mind rove wantonly, give it free rein to follow any idea, wise or mad that may present itself. ... My ideas are my harlots.Variant translations:My ideas are my whores.My thoughts are my trollops.
La reconnaissance est un fardeau, et tout fardeau est fait pour être secoué.
Denis Diderot— Gratitude is a burden, and every burden is made to be shaken off.
All abstract sciences are nothing but the study of relations between signs.
Denis Diderot— Dr. Théophile de Bordeu, in “Conversation Between D’Alembert and 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— “Conversation Between D’Alembert and Diderot”
There is only one passion, the passion for happiness.
Denis Diderot— "Will, Freedom”
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— Conclusion (Elements of Physiology (1875))
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.
Denis Diderot— Gautama Buddha, as quoted in the Dhammapada.
If I had believed him, everything would have been turned upside down... all would have been turned topsy-turvy to make room for impractical theories.
Denis Diderot— Catherine the Great as quoted by Jackson J. Spielvogel
