262 Quotes by Denis Diderot

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

Jacques said that his master said that everything good or evil we encounter here below was written on high.

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.

If exclusive privileges were not granted, and if the financial system would not tend to concentrate wealth, there would be few great fortunes and no quick wealth. When the means of growing rich is divided between a greater number of citizens, wealth will also be more evenly distributed; extreme poverty and extreme wealth would be also rare.

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.

One composition is meagre, though it has many figures; another is rich, though it has few.

Doctors are always working to preserve our health and cooks to destroy it, but the latter are the more often successful.

Isn't it better to have men being ungrateful than to miss a chance to do good?