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
firsts steps first-steps
Scepticism is the first step towards truth.
inspirational trust truth
We swallow greedily any lie that flatters us, but we sip only little by little at a truth we find bitter.
blow night light
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.
men vegetables roots
This root [the potato], no matter how much you prepare it, is tasteless and floury. It cannot pass for an agreeable food, but it supplies a food sufficiently abundant and sufficiently healthy for men who ask only to sustain themselves. The potato is criticized with reason for being windy, but what matters windiness for the vigorous organisms of peasants and laborers?
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.
Une danse est un poe' me. A dance is a poem.
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.