Denis Diderot 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.
 
Quotes of Denis Diderot :
1. 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.
2. Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.
3. Disturbances in society are never more fearful than when those who are stirring up the trouble can use the pretext of religion to mask their true designs.
4. We swallow greedily any lie that flatters us, but we sip only little by little at a truth we find bitter.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. There are things I can’t force. I must adjust. There are times when the greatest change needed is a change of my viewpoint.
8. 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.
9. Only a very bad theologian would confuse the certainty that follows revelation with the truths that are revealed. They are entirely different things.
10. Every man has his dignity. I’m willing to forget mine, but at my own discretion and not when someone else tells me to.
BY SHWETA TIWARI
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