Tao Te Ching
Diderot
1713 – 1784 CE
Philosopher, art critic, scientist, and writer; Diderot was imprisoned in solitary confinement for his philosophical views and mainly only known for his plays and encyclopedia during his lifetime. His rival Rousseau though believed posterity would give him the same respect as Aristotle and Plato and he was later admired by Goethe, Schiller, Balzac, Zola, and Schopenhauer. He was Karl Marx’s favorite prose writer and Comte called him the “foremost intellectual of an exciting age.” He worked on the Encyclopédie as a way of giving power to the common person and emphasized religious tolerance, freedom of thought, the value of science, and—threatening the French aristocracy—maintained that the main purpose of government should be benefiting the common people.
Eras
Chinese
Qing dynasty (1644 – 1912 CE)Sources
Unlisted Sources
Quotes by Diderot (17 quotes)
“Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.”
from Encyclopédie
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“All things must be examined, debated, investigated without exception and without regard for anyone's feelings.”
from Encyclopédie
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“Poetry must have something in it that is barbaric, vast and wild.”
from Encyclopédie
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“The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has killed a great many philosophers.”
from Encyclopédie
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“We swallow greedily any lie that flatters us, but we sip only little by little at a truth we find bitter.”
from Encyclopédie
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“From fanaticism to barbarism is only one step.”
from Encyclopédie
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“Skepticism is the first step on the road to philosophy.”
from Encyclopédie
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“the truths of feeling are more unshakable than the truths of logical demonstration”
from Encyclopédie
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“No man has received from nature the right to command his fellow human beings.”
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“Oh! how near are genius and madness! Men imprison them and chain them, or raise statues to them.”
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“posterity is for the philosopher what the 'other world' is for the man of religion”
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“Every man has his dignity. I'm willing to forget mine, but at my own discretion and not when someone else tells me to.”
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“There is only one passion, the passion for happiness.”
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“There is absolutely not a single unavoidable reason why somebody else's action or some circumstance should produce a negative emotion in me. It is only my weakness.”
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“As for the exterior religion of buddhism, the principal point of its doctrine is that the souls of men and of animals are immortal; that they are originally of the same substanace, and they they differ only according to the different bodies they animate”
from Encyclopédie
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“These peoples are superior to all other Asiatics in antiquity, art, intellect, wisdom, policy, and in their taste for philosophy... they dispute the palm, in these matters, with the most enlightened peoples of Europe. [1750]”
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