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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

“How old the world is! I walk between two eternities.... What is my fleeting existence in comparison with that decaying rock, that valley digging its channel ever deeper, that forest that is tottering and those great masses above my head about to fall? I see the marble of tombs crumbling into dust; and yet I don't want to die!”

World Want Two Dies Fall Walks Existence Rocks Mass Eternity Deeper Forests Dust Comparison Mortality Fleeting Tombs Marble Digging Wanting To Die Crumbling

Author:Denis Diderot

“What is this world? A complex whole, subject to endless revolutions. All these revolutions show a continual tendency to destruction; a swift succession of beings who follow one another, press forward, and vanish; a fleeting symmetry; the order of a moment. I reproached you just now with estimating the perfection of things by your own capacity; and I might accuse you here of measuring its duration by the length of your own days.”

“Evil always turns up in this world through some genius or other.”

World Turns Evil This World Genius Fame

Author:Denis Diderot

“Posterity for the philosopher is what the other world is for the religious man.”

Men World Philosophy Religious Philosopher Posterity Other Worlds

Author:Denis Diderot

“The world is the house of the strong.”

World House Strong Gambling Shaking Gamble

Book:Selected Writings

Source: Selected Writings

“Do you see this egg? With this you can topple every theological theory, every church or temple in the world.”

World Science Church Theory Temples Eggs Theological

Book:Selected Writings

Source: Selected Writings

“People praise virtue, but they hate it, they run away from it. It freezes you to death, and in this world you've got to keep your feet warm.”

People World Running Death Hate Literature Virtue Feet This World Praise Warm Running Away Freeze Hate People

Book:Selected Writings

Source: Selected Writings

“If the weather is too cold or rainy, I take shelter in the Regence Cafe, where I entertain myself by watching chess being played. Paris is the world center, and this cafe is the Paris centre for the finest skill at this game.”

Ifs World Games Learning Cold Skills Chess Weather Paris Shelter Finest Centre Rainy Cafes Being Played

Book:Rameau's Nephew and Other Works

Source: Rameau's Nephew and Other Works

“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, dice box in hand, shaking the dice.”

Knows World Years Ends Hands House Lost Strong Boxes Gambling Sixty Shaking Gamble Dice Dens

Book:Selected Writings

Source: Selected Writings

“What a fine comedy this world would be if one did not play a part in it.”

Ifs World Play Would Be Comedy This World Fine

Author:Denis Diderot