Isn't it better to have men be ungrateful than to miss a chance to do good?

— Denis Diderot

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

— Denis Diderot

Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.

— Denis Diderot

Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.

— 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

No man has received from nature the right to command his fellow human beings.

— Denis Diderot

Oh! How near are genius and madness! Men imprison them and chain them, or raise statues to them.

— Denis Diderot

One cannot get rid of a good education, nor, unfortunately, of a bad one, which often is such because one has not wanted to defray the expenses of a good one.

— Denis Diderot

One swallows the lie that flatters, but sips the bitter truth drop by drop.

— Denis Diderot

Only passions great passions can elevate the soul to great things.

— Denis Diderot