262 Quotes by Denis Diderot

It is not the man who is beside himself, but he who is cool and collected, – who is master of his countenance, of his voice, of his actions, of his gestures, of every part of his play, – who can work upon others at his pleasure.

En ge ne ral, plus un peuple est civilise, poli, moins ses moeurs sont poe tiques; tout s’affaiblit en s’adoucissant. Ingeneral, themore civilized and refinedthepeople, the less poetic are its morals; everything weakens as it mellows.

If your little savage were left to himself and be allowed to retain all his ignorance, he would in time join the infant’s reasoning to the grown man’s passion, he would strangle his father and sleep with his mother.

If there is one realm in which it is essential to be sublime, it is in wickedness. You spit on a petty thief, but you can’t deny a kind of respect for the great criminal.

One may demand of me that I should seek truth, but not that I should find it.

And he added that prudence in no way assured us of success but consoled us and excused us in failure.

I give my mind the liberty to follow the first wise or foolish idea that presents itself, just as in the avenue de Foy our dissolute youths follow close on the heels of some strumpet, then leave her to pursue another, attacking all of them and attaching themselves to none. My thoughts are my strumpets.

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.

The best doctor is the one you run to and can’t find.