Denis Diderot Quotes
1713 - 1784
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
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— On the Interpretation of Nature, No. 30 (1753)
Mes pense es sont mes catins. My thoughts are my prostitutes.
Denis Diderot— 1761-74 Le Neveu de Rameau.
Rien ne dissemble plus de lui que lui-me" me. Nothing resembles him less than himself.
Denis Diderot— 1761-74 Le Neveu de Rameau.
L'esprit de l'escalier. Staircase wit.
Denis Diderot— 1773-8 That is, the witty reply that comes to mind after leaving the company, while descending the stairs. Paradoxe sur le come d ien (published1830).
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.
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— Apology for the Abbé de Prades (1752)
Il y a un peu de testicule au fond de nos sentiments les plus sublimes et de notre tendresse la plus épurée.
Denis Diderot— There's a bit of testicle at the bottom of our most sublime feelings and our purest tenderness.Letter to Étienne Noël Damilaville (1760-11-03)
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),
I have often seen an actor laugh off the stage, but I don’t remember ever having seen one weep.
Denis Diderot— "Paradox on Acting" (1830), as quoted in Selected Writings (1966) edited by Lester G. Crocker
Justice is the first virtue of those who command, and stops the complaints of those who obey.
Denis Diderot— As quoted in The Golden Treasury of Thought : A Gathering of Quotations from the Best Ancient and Modern Authors (1873) by Theodore Taylor, p. 227
Et ses mains ourdiraient les entrailles du prêtre, Au défaut d’un cordon pour étrangler les rois.
Denis Diderot— And his hands would plait the priest's entrails,
For want of a rope, to strangle kings."Les Éleuthéromanes", in Poésies Diverses (1875)
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.
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— As quoted in Cracking the Code of Our Physical Universe : The Key to a Whole New World of Enlightenment and Enrichment (2006) by Matthew M Radmanesh, p. 91
Happiest are the people who give most happiness to others.
Denis Diderot— As quoted in Happyology by Harald W. Tietze, p. 28
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— Ch. 3, as quoted in Selected Writings (1966) edited by Lester G. Crocker
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
Aucun homme n'a recu de la nature le droit de commander aux autres. La liberté est un présent du ciel, et chaque individu de la meme espèce a le droit d'en jouir aussitòt qu'il jouit de la raison.
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.Article on Political Authority, Vol. 1, (1751) as quoted in Selected Writings (1966) edited by Lester G. CrockerVariant translation: No man has received from nature the right to command his fellow human beings.
La puissance qui s'acquiert par la violence n'est qu'une usurpation, et ne dure qu'autant que la force de celui qui commande l'emporte sur celle de ceux qui obéissent.
Denis Diderot— Power acquired by violence is only a usurpation, and lasts only as long as the force of him who commands prevails over that of those who obey.Article on Political Authority, Vol. 1 (1751)
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”
Égaré dans une forêt immense pendant la nuit, je n’ai qu’une petite lumière pour me conduire. Survient un inconnu qui me dit:;: Mon ami, souffle ta bougie pour mieux trouver ton chemin. Cet inconnu est un théologien. No VIII
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. — Number VIII
Jacques said that his master said that everything good or evil we encounter here below was written on high.
Denis Diderot— Prologue (Jacques le Fataliste (1796))
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
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— Friedrich Engels in Diderot: Interpreter of Nature (London: 1937)
Diderot took the ground that, if orthodox religion be true Christ was guilty of suicide. Having the power to defend himself he should have used it.
Denis Diderot— Robert Green Ingersoll in "Diderot" in The Great Infidels (1881); The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll Vol. III (1900), p. 367
Poetry must have something in it that is barbaric, vast and wild.
Denis Diderot— Denis Diderot, On Dramatic Poetry (1758).
