Denis Diderot

His hands would plait the priest's guts, if he had no rope, to strangle kings. ↗

— Denis Diderot

#had #hands #his #kings #priest

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

— Denis Diderot

#god #him #make #me #must

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

— Denis Diderot

#as far as #far #go #hypothesis #more

It is not human nature we should accuse but the despicable conventions that pervert it. ↗

— Denis Diderot

#conventions #despicable #human #human nature #nature

It is said that desire is a product of the will, but the converse is in fact true: will is a product of desire. ↗

— Denis Diderot

#desire #fact #in fact #product #said

Justice is the first virtue of those who command, and stops the complaints of those who obey. ↗

— Denis Diderot

#complaints #first #justice #obey #stops

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

#asian #bad #countries #european #good

One declaims endlessly against the passions; one imputes all of man's suffering to them. One forgets that they are also the source of all his pleasures. ↗

— Denis Diderot

#also #endlessly #forgets #his #man

Only a very bad theologian would confuse the certainty that follows revelation with the truths that are revealed. They are entirely different things. ↗

— Denis Diderot

#certainty #confuse #different #different things #entirely

Our observation of nature must be diligent, our reflection profound, and our experiments exact. We rarely see these three means combined; and for this reason, creative geniuses are not common. ↗

— Denis Diderot

#common #creative #diligent #exact #experiments