Quotes from Denis Diderot

It is better to reveal a weakness than allow oneself be suspected of a vice.

The most dangerous madmen are those created by religion, and ... people whose aim is to disrupt society always know how to make good use of them on occasion.

It is very important not to mistake hemlock for parsley; but not at all so to believe or not in God.

The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has killed a great many philosophers.

Disturbances in society are never more fearful than when those who are stirring up the trouble can use the pretext of religion to mask their true designs.

The most dangerous madmen are those created by religion, and people whose aim is to disrupt society always know how to make good use of them on occasion.

Only passions, great passions, can elevate the soul to great things.

Good music is very close to primitive language.

The decisions of law courts should never be printed: in the long run, they form a counter authority to the law.

Patriotism is an ephemeral motive that scarcely ever outlasts the particular threat to society that aroused it.

I am wholly yours - you are everything to me; we will sustain each other in all the ills of life it may please fate to inflict upon us; you will soothe my troubles; I will comfort you in yours.

There is only one virtue, justice; only one duty, to be happy; only one corollary, not to overvalue life and not to fear death.

Poetry must have something in it that is barbaric, vast and wild.

In order to shake a hypothesis, it is sometimes not necessary to do anything more than push it as far as it will go.

Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.

All abstract sciences are nothing but the study of relations between signs.

When science, art, literature, and philosophy are simply the manifestation of personality they are on a level where glorious and dazzling achievements are possible, which can make a man's name live for thousands of years.

There are three principal means of acquiring knowledge... observation of nature, reflection, and experimentation. Observation collects facts; reflection combines them; experimentation verifies the result of that combination.

Time, matter, space - all, it may be, are no more than a point.

No man has received from nature the right to command his fellow human beings.

If you want me to believe in God, you must make me touch him.

The first step towards philosophy is incredulity.

Pithy sentences are like sharp nails which force truth upon our memory.

It has been said that love robs those who have it of their wit, and gives it to those who have none.