Denis Diderot Quotes

I am no lover of disorder and doubt as such. Rather do I fear to lose truth by this pretension to possess it already wholly.

Democritus says, "But we know nothing really; for truth lies deep down".

I don't know anything and neither do you.

We do not dwell in the Palace of Truth. But, as was mentioned to me not long since, "There is a time coming when all things shall be found out." I am not so sanguine myself, believing that the well in which Truth is said to reside is really a bottomless pit.

To find oneself living in an age of doubt is not such a curse. There is a kind of reverence in undertaking the quest for truth, even before the first scrap has been found.

There is but one straight course, and that is to seek truth and pursue it steadily

Unless you have the courage to doubt you will never come to know the truth.

If we can get to the truth, we can change anything.

Do not believe the truth. The truth is tiny compared to what you have to do.

We are all seekers in some way. There are those of us who think they have all the answers and there are those of us who may never get an answer.

There is only one thing about which I am certain, and that is that there is very little about which one can be certain.

The clear and perfect truth no man has seen, nor will there be anyone who knows about the gods and what I say about all things...; for, however perfect what he says may be, yet he does not know it; all things are matters of opinion.

I know nothing and perhaps I never will.

True belief is not about blind submission. It is about open-eyed acceptance, and acceptance requires persistent distance from the truth, and that distance is doubt. Doubt, in other words, can feed faith, rather than destroy it. And it forces us, even while believing, to recognize our fundamental duty with respect to God's truth: humility. We do not know. Which is why we believe.

Don't imagine that you'll discover {the truth} by accumulating more knowledge. Knowledge creates doubt, and doubt makes you ravenous for more knowledge. You can't get full eating this way.

No one knows anything for sure.

I'm constantly searching for the truth amidst a sea of confusion and uncertainty.

For there is a VOID in things; a truth which it will be useful for you, in reference to many points, to know; and which will prevent you from wandering in doubt.

Where doubt there truth is - 'tis her shadow.

He who doubts, knows - knows as much as can be known.

I hate not knowing what to believe anymore. I hate not knowing what's real.

Truth is a torch, but a terrific one; therefore we all try to reach it with closed eyes, lest we should be scorched.

What is truth? I don't know and I'm sorry I brought it up.

I can believe things that are true and things that aren't true and I can believe things where nobody knows if they're true or not.

... no bell in us tolls to let us know for certain when truth is in our grasp.