Denis Diderot Quotes

Question everything!

Men become civilized, not in proportion to their willingness to believe, but in proportion to their readiness to doubt.

Skepticism is the first step on the road to philosophy.

By doubting we are led to question, by questioning we arrive at the truth.

Skepticism is a virtue in history as well as in philosophy.

Doubt, the essential preliminary of all improvement and discovery, must accompany the stages of man's onward progress. The faculty of doubting and questioning, without which those of comparison and judgment would be useless, is itself a divine prerogative of the reason.

The first step towards philosophy is incredulity.

To doubt everything or to believe everything are two equally convenient solutions; both dispense with the necessity of reflection.

If you would be a real seeker after truth, you must at least once in your life doubt, as far as possible, all things.

Constant and frequent questioning is the first key to wisdom … For through doubting we are led to inquire, and by inquiry we perceive the truth.

What has not been examined impartially has not been well examined. Skepticism is therefore the first step towards truth.

The path of sound credence is through the thick forest of skepticism.

Philosophy has to be enquiring; it can take nothing on faith, and its methods are based not on the blind acceptance of authority, but on establishing truths by reason and argument.

Be Skeptical, but learn to listen.

It is by doubting that we come to investigate, and by investigating that we recognize the truth.

Oxford also taught me something else - it taught me scepticism.

Religion asks you to believe things without questioning, and technology and science always encourage you to ask hard questions and why it is important in science and technology. So I was always interested in science and technology.

What is wanted is not the will to believe, but the will to find out, which is the exact opposite.

I love to doubt as well as know.

The key to wisdom is this - constant and frequent questioning, for by doubting we are led to question and by questioning we arrive at the truth.

If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts, but if he will content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties.

Scientists are always skeptics.

Doubt is the incentive to truth and inquiry leads the way.

What we need is not the will to believe, but the wish to find out.

True science teaches, above all, to doubt