When superstition is allowed to perform the task of old age in dulling the human temperament, we can say goodbye to all excellence in poetry, in painting, and in music. – Denis Diderot
Poetry must have something in it that is barbaric, vast and wild. – Denis Diderot
If there is one realm in which it is essential to be sublime, it is in wickedness. You spit on a petty thief, but you cant deny a kind of respect for the great criminal. – Denis Diderot
The world is the house of the strong. I shall not know until the end what I have lost or won in this place, in this vast gambling den where I have spent more than sixty years, dicebox in hand, shaking the dice. – Denis Diderot