Denis Diderot
Denis Diderot
Denis Diderotʁo]; 5 October 1713 – 31 July 1784) was a French philosopher, art critic, and writer. He was a prominent figure during the Enlightenment and is best known for serving as co-founder, chief editor, and contributor to the Encyclopédie along with Jean le Rond d'Alembert...
ProfessionPhilosopher
Date of Birth5 October 1713
spiritual atheist science
The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has killed a great many philosophers.
men command humans
No man has received from nature the right to command his fellow human beings.
book learning numbers
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.
men age genius
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.
philosophy firsts steps
Skepticism is the first step on the road to philosophy.
distance sky earth
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.
health successful doctors
Doctors are always working to preserve our health and cooks to destroy it, but the latter are the more often successful.
atheist kings men
Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.
art moving eye
First move me, astonish me, break my heart, let me tremble, weep, stare, be enraged-only then regale my eyes.
doe painter
You can be sure that a painter reveals himself in his work as much as and more than a writer does in his.
risk suspicious
You risk just as much in being credulous as in being suspicious.
men solitude bad-man
Only the bad man is alone.
god christian religious
The Christian religion teaches us to imitate a God that is cruel, insidious, jealous, and implacable in his wrath.
fall dark light
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.