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Denis Diderot Quotes

Philosopher

Denis Diderot was a French philosopher, art critic, and writer who played a pivotal role in the Enlightenment. He is best known for his work on the Encyclopédie, which aimed to compile all the knowledge of the time into a single work.

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Famous Denis Diderot Quotes

“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.”

Doe Form Spirit Principles Particular Philosophical Philosopher Observation Infinity Objectivity Accuracy Doubtful

Author:Denis Diderot

“Does not vanity itself cease to be blamable, is it not even ennobled, when it is directed to laudable objects, when it confines itself to prompting us to great and generous actions?”

Doe Action Objects Cease Vanity Generous

Author: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.”

Men Needs Doe Walks Hell Economic Worst Hunger Bites Humiliation Twists Posture Needy Skip Economic Systems

Author:Denis Diderot

“You can be sure that a painter reveals himself in his work as much as and more than a writer does in his.”

Doe Painter

Author:Denis Diderot

“Does anyone really know where they're going to?”

Knows Doe

Book:Jacques the Fatalist and His Master

Source: Jacques the Fatalist and His Master

“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.”

People Thinking Doe Seems Law Belief Nations Honest Belief In God

Author:Denis Diderot

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

Doe Useless Sublime God Exists Whether God Exists

Author:Denis Diderot

“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.”

Ifs Men May Doe Self Literature Hurt Fine Holy Pure Have Faith Clothings Possessed Holy Man

Author:Denis Diderot

“There is no moral precept that does not have something inconvenient about it.”

Inspirational Doe Literature Moral Morality Inconvenient

Author: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.”

Doe Religion Views Mankind Wall Divinity Temples Sanctuary Banned

Author:Denis Diderot

“Passions destroy more prejudices than philosophy does.”

Doe Philosophy Passion Prejudice

Book:Selected writings on art and literature

Source: Selected writings on art and literature