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.
Denis Diderot (1713–1784) French editor, philosopher
“Observations on the Drawing Up of Laws,” Letter to Catherine the Great (1774)
Quotations by:
Diderot, Denis
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.
Denis Diderot (1713–1784) French editor, philosopher
“Observations on the Drawing Up of Laws” (1774)
The arbitrary rule of a just and enlightened prince is always bad. His virtues are the most dangerous and the surest form of seduction: they lull a people imperceptibly into the habit of loving, respecting, and serving his successor, whoever that successor may be, no matter how wicked or stupid.
Denis Diderot (1713–1784) French editor, philosopher
“Refutation of Helvétius” (1773-76)
Watch out for the fellow who talks about putting things in order! Putting things in order always means getting other people under your control.
Denis Diderot (1713–1784) French editor, philosopher
“Supplement to Bougainville’s Voyage” (1796)
There is no moral precept that does not have something inconvenient about it.
Denis Diderot (1713–1784) French editor, philosopher
(Attributed)
There is no moral precept that does not have something inconvenient about it.
Denis Diderot (1713–1784) French editor, philosopher
(Attributed)
There are things I can’t force. I must adjust. There are times when the greatest change needed is a change of my viewpoint.
Denis Diderot (1713–1784) French editor, philosopher
(Attributed)
Happiest are the people who give most happiness to others.
Denis Diderot (1713–1784) French editor, philosopher
(Attributed)
Those authors into whose hands nature has placed a magic wand, with which they no sooner touch us than we forget the unhappiness in life, than the darkness leaves our soul, and we are reconciled to existence, should be placed among the benefactors of the human race.
Denis Diderot (1713–1784) French editor, philosopher
(Attributed)
Attributed in Maturin M. Ballou, Treasury of Thought (1884 ed.).
From fanaticism to barbarism is only one step.
Denis Diderot (1713–1784) French editor, philosopher
Essai sur le Mérite de la Vertu [Essay on Merit and Virtue] (1745)Diderot’s essay is a translation of Shaftesbury’s Essay on the Merit of Virtue (1699).
No man has received from nature the right to give orders to others. Freedom is a gift from heaven, and every individual of the same species has the right to enjoy it as soon as he is in enjoyment of his reason.
Denis Diderot (1713–1784) French editor, philosopher
L’Encyclopédie, Vol. 1, “Political Authority” (article) (1751)
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 (1713–1784) French editor, philosopher
L’Encyclopédie, Vol. 1, Article on “Political Authority” (1751)
Man was born to live with his fellow human beings. Separate him, isolate him, his character will go bad, a thousand ridiculous affects will invade his heart, extravagant thoughts will germinate in his brain, like thorns in an uncultivated land.
Denis Diderot (1713–1784) French editor, philosopher
La Religieuse [The Nun] [Suzanne Simon] (1796)
Every man has his dignity. I’m willing to forget mine, but at my own discretion and not when someone else tells me to.
Denis Diderot (1713–1784) French editor, philosopher
Le Neveu de Rameau [Rameau’s Nephew] (1762)
L’esprit de l’escalier
[Spirit of the staircase]Denis Diderot (1713–1784) French editor, philosopher
Paradoxe sur le Comédien (1773-1777)
Alt trans. "Staircase inspiration." A reference to the remarks/retorts one only thinks of too late, as when descending the stairs of a building after an encounter inside.
A thing is not proved just because no one has ever questioned it. What has never been gone into impartially has never been properly gone into. Hence skepticism is the first step toward truth. It must be applied generally, because it is the touchstone.
Denis Diderot (1713–1784) French editor, philosopher
Pensées Philosophiques [Philosophical Thoughts] (1746)Alt trans.: "The first step towards philosophy is incredulity."
We are constantly railing against the passions; we ascribe to them all of man’s afflictions, and we forget that they are also the source of all his pleasures.
Denis Diderot (1713–1784) French editor, philosopher
Pensées Philosophiques [Philosophical Thoughts] (1746)
Other translations: "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."
One may demand of me that I should seek truth, but not that I should find it.
[On doit exiger de moi que je cherche la vérité, mais non que je la trouve.]
Denis Diderot (1713–1784) French editor, philosopher
Pensées Philosophiques [Philosophical Thoughts], #29 (1746)Alt. trans.: "I can be expected to look for truth but not to find it."
To attempt the destruction of our passions is the height of folly. What a noble aim is that of the zealot who tortures himself like a madman in order to desire nothing, love nothing, feel nothing, and who, if he succeeded, would end up a complete monster!
Denis Diderot (1713–1784) French editor, philosopher
Pensées Philosophiques [Philosophical Thoughts], ch. 5 (1746)
The God of the Christians is a father who makes much of his apples, and very little of his children.
Denis Diderot (1713–1784) French editor, philosopher
Pensées Philosophiques [Philosophical Thoughts], No. 16 (1746)
And his hands would plait the priest’s entrails,
For want of a rope, to strangle kings.[Et ses mains ourdiraient les entrailles du prêtre,
Au défaut d’un cordon pour étrangler les rois.]Denis Diderot (1713–1784) French editor, philosopher
Poem (1772), “Les Éleuthéromanes”
(Source)
The work is also sometimes referred to as "Dithrambe sur fête de rois."
(Source (French)). Other translations:And his hands would plait a priest's entrails;
In lieu of a rope for strangling kings.
[Source]His hands would plait the priest’s guts,
if he had no rope, to strangle kings.
[E.g.]
Jean-François de La Harpe, Lycée, ou Cours de Littérature Ancienne et Moderne (1822), attributes this variant to Diderot as the "crowning touch" of his philosophy:With the guts of the last priest,
Let us strangle the last king
[Et des boyaux du dernier prêtre
Serrons le cou du dernier roi.]
Alternately:And [with] the guts of the last priest
Let's shake the neck of the last king.
[E.g.]
This phrasing of Diderot's is most likely derived from a passage by Jean Meslier (c. 1664–1733), a French priest. In his Testament [Common Sense], Vol. 1, ch. 2 [ed. Charles (1864)], he told (and approved) of an "ignorant, uneducated man" who said (English, French):He said he wished [...] that all the great men in the world and all the nobility could be hanged, and strangled with the guts of priests.
[Il souhaitoit [...] que tous les grands de la terre et que tous les nobles fussent pendus et étranglés avec les boïaux des prêtres.]
Other translations of Meslier:His wish was that all the rulers of the earth and all the nobles be hanged and strangled with the guts of priests.
[tr. Shreve (2009)]
Bill Brown, the 2007 translator of Veneigem's The Resistance to Christianity (1993), noted that Voltaire, who edited an early edition of Meslier's Testament, rewrote the passage to provide another French variant (with Brown's English translation):I would like, and this would be the last and most ardent of my wishes, I would like it that the last king was strangled with the guts of the last priest.
[Je voudrais, et ce sera le dernier et le plus ardent de mes souhaits, je voudrais que le dernier des rois fût etranglé avec les boyaux du dernier prêtre.]
Other variants, in general:
- "Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest."
- "Humanity will only be happy when the last priest has been hung with the guts of the last prince."