Denis Diderot
Denis Diderot
Denis Diderotʁo]; 5 October 1713 – 31 July 1784) was a French philosopher, art critic, and writer. He was a prominent figure during the Enlightenment and is best known for serving as co-founder, chief editor, and contributor to the Encyclopédie along with Jean le Rond d'Alembert...
ProfessionPhilosopher
Date of Birth5 October 1713
fall rocks dust
How old the world is! I walk between two eternities.... What is my fleeting existence in comparison with that decaying rock, thatvalley 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!
play would-be world
What a fine comedy this world would be if one did not play a part in it.
beautiful color order
If you disturb the colors of the rainbow, the rainbow is no longer beautiful.
animal different shapes
The following general definition of an animal: a system of different organic molecules that have combined with one another, under the impulsion of a sensation similar to an obtuse and muffled sense of touch given to them by the creator of matter as a whole, until each one of them has found the most suitable position for its shape and comfort.
justice atheism virtue
There is only one virtue, justice; only one duty, to be happy; only one corollary, not to overvalue life and not to fear death.
rain house atheism
It is raining bombs on the house of the Lord. I go in fear and trembling lest one of these terrible bombers gets into difficulties.
mushrooms giving sauce
Whatever dressing one gives to mushrooms, to whatever sauces our Apiciuses put them, they are not really good but to be sent back to the dungheap where they are born.
men play voice
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.
distance admiration promoters
Distance is a great promoter of admiration
order two heaven
If reason be a gift of Heaven, and we can say as much of faith, Heaven has certainly made us two gifts not only incompatible, but in direct contradiction to each other. In order to solve the difficulty, we are compelled to say either that faith is a chimera or that reason is useless.
thinking judging feelings
I feel, I think, I judge; therefore, a part of organized matter like me is capable of feeling, thinking, and judging.
eggs church temples
Do you see this egg? With this you can topple every theological theory, every church or temple in the world.
men animal reason
Instinct guides the animal better than the man. In the animal it is pure, in man it is led astray by his reason and intelligence.
space may matter
Time, matter, space - all, it may be, are no more than a point.