Denis Diderot ( ; October 5, 1713 – July 31, 1784) was a French philosopher, art critic, and writer. He was a prominent person during the Enlightenment and is best known for serving as co-founder and chief editor of and contributor to the Encyclopédie along with Jean le Rond d'Alembert.
Diderot also contributed to literature, notably with Jacques le fataliste et son maître (Jacques the Fatalist and his Master), which emulated Laurence Sterne in challenging conventions regarding novels and their structure and content, while also examining philosophical ideas about free will. Diderot is also known as the author of the dialogue, Le Neveu de Rameau (Rameau's Nephew), upon which many articles and sermons about consumer desire have been based.
Read more about Denis Diderot: Life and Death, Early Works, Encyclopédie, Other Works, Philosophy, Historiography, Bibliography
Famous quotes by denis diderot:
“Man was born to live with his fellow human beings. Separate him, isolate him, his character will go bad, a thousand ridiculous affects will invade his heart, extravagant thoughts will germinate in his brain, like thorns in an uncultivated land.”
—Denis Diderot (1713–1784)
“People praise virtue, but they hate it, they run away from it. It freezes you to death, and in this world you’ve got to keep your feet warm.”
—Denis Diderot (1713–1784)
“Patriotism is an ephemeral motive that scarcely ever outlasts the particular threat to society that aroused it.”
—Denis Diderot (1713–1784)
“Shakespeare’s fault is not the greatest into which a poet may fall. It merely indicates a deficiency of taste.”
—Denis Diderot (1713–1784)
“In order to shake a hypothesis, it is sometimes not necessary to do anything more than push it as far as it will go.”
—Denis Diderot (1713–1784)