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Evil always turns up in this world through some genius or other.

— Denis Diderot Dictionary of Foreign Quotations (1980)

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Intelligence

More quotes by Denis Diderot

It is said that desire is a product of the will, but the converse is in fact true: will is a product of desire.

Elements of Physiology (1875)

In order to shake a hypothesis, it is sometimes not necessary to do anything more than push it as far as it will go.

On the Interpretation of Nature (1753)

There is no moral precept that does not have something inconvenient about it.

Dictionary of Foreign Quotations (1980)

Pithy sentences are like sharp nails which force truth upon our memory.

A Dictionary of Thoughts : Being a Cyclopedia of Laconic Quotations (1908)

Watch out for the fellow who talks about putting things in order! Putting things in order always means getting other people under your control.

Supplement to Bougainville's Voyage (1796)

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Each of these private teachers who work for pay ... inculcates nothing else than these opinions of the multitude which they opine when they are assembled and calls this knowledge wisdom.

Socrates

Most intellectual people do not believe in God, but they fear him just the same.

Wilhelm Reich Philosophy : An Introduction to the Art of Wondering (2005)

Innocence in genius, and candor in power, are both noble qualities.

Anne Louise Germaine de Staël De l’Allemagne [Germany (1813)

Like every 'intellectual', a philosophy teacher is a petty bourgeois. When he opens his mouth, it is petty-bourgeois ideology that speaks: its resources and ruses are infinite.

Louis Althusser Lenin and Philosophy and Other Essays (1968)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Denis Diderot (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.