Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Meandering in knowledge . . .

Today is the birthday of Denis Diderot (October 5, 1713 – July 31, 1784), philosopher, art critic, and writer.

Here is another writer whose works have been burned -in 1749 Denis Diderot’s book Pensées philosophiques was burned by the public hangman.

"From fanaticism to barbarism is only one step."
- Denis Diderot

“In any country where talent and virtue produce no advancement, money will be the national god. Its inhabitants will either have to possess money or make others believe that they do. Wealth will be the highest virtue, poverty the greatest vice. Those who have money will display it in every imaginable way. If their ostentation does not exceed their fortune, all will be well. But if their ostentation does exceed their fortune they will ruin themselves. In such a country, the greatest fortunes will vanish in the twinkling of an eye. Those who don't have money will ruin themselves with vain efforts to conceal their poverty. That is one kind of affluence: the outward sign of wealth for a small number, the mask of poverty for the majority, and a source of corruption for all.”
- Denis Diderot

"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."
- Denis Diderot

“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

"We swallow greedily any lie that flatters us, but we sip only little by little at a truth we find bitter."
- Denis Diderot

"
Only passions, great passions can elevate the soul to great things."
- Denis Diderot

Diderot image source (1)

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