25 quotes
French Enlightenment philosopher writer and encyclopædist (1713–1784)
“We swallow greedily any lie that flatters us, but we sip only little by little at a truth we find bitter.”
"One swallows the lie that flatters, but sips the bitter truth drop by drop."
on Truth
"All things must be examined, debated, investigated without exception and without regard for anyone's feelings."
on Critical Thinking
"Oh! how near are genius and madness! Men imprison them and chain them, or raise statues to them."
on Genius
"Poetry must have something in it that is barbaric, vast and wild."
on Art
"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."
on Power
"If you want me to believe in God, you must make me touch him."
on Faith
"Scepticism is the first step towards truth."
"There are things I can't force. I must adjust. There are times when the greatest change needed is a change of my viewpoint."
on Life
"Patriotism is an ephemeral motive that scarcely ever outlasts the particular threat to society that aroused it."
on Philosophy
"No man has received from nature the right to command his fellow human beings."
on Human Rights
"It is not human nature we should accuse but the despicable conventions that pervert it."
on Society
"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."
on Nature
"Only passions great passions can elevate the soul to great things."
"Whether God exists or does not exist, He has come to rank among the most sublime and useless truths."
"You risk just as much in being credulous as in being suspicious."
on Wisdom
"Only passions, great passions can elevate the soul to great things."
on Inspirational
"Isn't it better to have men be ungrateful than to miss a chance to do good?"
"Morals are in all countries the result of legislation and government they are not African or Asian or European: they are good or bad."
on Ethics
"Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest."
on Freedom
"Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest."
