Diderot

Famous quotes containing the word diderot:

    There are three principal means of acquiring knowledge available to us: observation of nature, reflection, and experimentation. Observation collects facts; reflection combines them; experimentation verifies the result of that combination. 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.
    —Denis Diderot (1713–1784)

    It is said that desire is a product of the will, but the converse is in fact true: will is a product of desire.
    —Denis Diderot (1713–1784)

    Impenetrable in their dissimulation, cruel in their vengeance, tenacious in their purposes, unscrupulous as to their methods, animated by profound and hidden hatred for the tyranny of man—it is as though there exists among them an ever-present conspiracy toward domination, a sort of alliance like that subsisting among the priests of every country.
    —Denis Diderot (1713–1784)