“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.”
— Denis Diderot
Author: Denis Diderot
Category: nature
Tags: nature, Denis Diderot
“Good music is very close to primitive language.”
— Denis Diderot
Author: Denis Diderot
Category: music
Tags: music, Denis Diderot
“Only passions, great passions can elevate the soul to great things.”
— Denis Diderot
Author: Denis Diderot
Category: great
Tags: great, Denis Diderot
“When superstition is allowed to perform the task of old age in dulling the human temperament, we can say goodbye to all excellence in poetry, in painting, and in music.”
— Denis Diderot
Author: Denis Diderot
Category: age
Tags: age, Denis Diderot
“The possibility of divorce renders both marriage partners stricter in their observance of the duties they owe to each other. Divorces help to improve morals and to increase the population.”
— Denis Diderot
Author: Denis Diderot
Category: marriage
Tags: marriage, Denis Diderot
“We swallow greedily any lie that flatters us, but we sip only little by little at a truth we find bitter.”
— Denis Diderot
Author: Denis Diderot
Category: truth
Tags: truth, Denis Diderot
“Morals are in all countries the result of legislation and government; they are not African or Asian or European: they are good or bad.”
— Denis Diderot
Author: Denis Diderot
Category: government
Tags: government, Denis Diderot
“It is very important not to mistake hemlock for parsley, but to believe or not believe in God is not important at all.”
— Denis Diderot
Author: Denis Diderot
Category: god
Tags: god, Denis Diderot
“Poetry must have something in it that is barbaric, vast and wild.”
— Denis Diderot
Author: Denis Diderot
Category: poetry
Tags: poetry, Denis Diderot
“Genius is present in every age, but the men carrying it within them remain benumbed unless extraordinary events occur to heat up and melt the mass so that it flows forth.”
— Denis Diderot
Author: Denis Diderot
Category: age
Tags: age, Denis Diderot
“Power acquired by violence is only a usurpation, and lasts only as long as the force of him who commands prevails over that of those who obey.”
— Denis Diderot
Author: Denis Diderot
Category: power
Tags: power, Denis Diderot