Denis Diderot

"A man must learn to endure what he cannot escape."

"Vanity is the quicksand of reason."

"The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind."

"Music is the language of all mankind."

"Gratitude is a duty which ought to be paid, but which none have a right to expect."

"The philosophers have only interpreted the world; the point is to change it."

"Imagination is more important than knowledge in creating our future."

"My thoughts are my company; I prefer them to most people."

"Credulity is the man's weakness, but the child's strength."

"Experience is not what happens to a man; it is what a man does with what happens."

"The supreme happiness of life is the conviction of being loved."

"Be just before you are generous."

"Posterity will honor them who honored their contemporaries."

"The first step toward philosophy is incredulity."

"Art should console the afflicted and afflict the comfortable."

"There is nothing more futile than theorizing without experience."

"We swallow greedily any lie that flatters us, but we sip only cautiously at a truth."

"The flower fades, but the fragrance remains."

"Despotism can only exist through darkness."

"The good of all should be the law of each."

"Art is the signature of civilizations."

"Hope is the last thing to abandon the wretched."

"Character is what you are in the dark."

"Every man has his share of dignity."

"When there is no peril in the fight, there is no glory in the triumph."

"The only way to avoid being miserable is to cease to care."

"A man may go mad if he thinks too much about himself."

"Science and philosophy have little to gain from mystery."

"Tolerance is the virtue of those who no longer hold power."

"The greatest truths are the simplest things in the world."