Denis Diderot Quotes

Skepticism is the first step on the road to philosophy.

The great benefit of philosophy, which is also its great weakness, is that all its steps are taken in the spirit of doubt.

Skepticism is the first step towards truth.

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

I think we ought always to entertain our opinions with some measure of doubt. I shouldn't wish people dogmatically to believe any philosophy, not even mine.

Liberalism is an attitude rather than a set of dogmas - an attitude that insists upon questioning all plausible and self-evident propositions, seeking not to reject them but to find out what evidence there is to support them rather than their possible alternatives.

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.

My only weapon is the question.

That's something I learned as a philosophy major: The philosophy ethos is, always question, never rest.

In philosophy you're never 100% sure. You're always undermining what you think you know. That's always been my philosophy and my intellectual ethos.

If you've never met a student from the University of Chicago, I'll describe him to you. If you give him a glass of water, he says, 'This is a glass of water. But is it a glass of water? And if it is a glass of water, why is it a glass of water?' And eventually he dies of thirst.

Skepticism may undermine beliefs, but never belief.

Bein logical gave me a reason to doubt

Beginning to think is beginning to be undermined.

At the very smallest wheel of our reasoning it is possible for a handful of questions to break the bank of our answers.

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

Large skepticism leads to large understanding. Small skepticism leads to small understanding. No skepticism leads to no understanding.

I love to doubt as well as know.

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.

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.

To have doubted one's own first principles is the mark of a civilized man.

The true function of philosophy is to educate us in the principles of reasoning and not to put an end to further reasoning by the introduction of fixed conclusions.

The guiding motto in the life of every natural philosopher should be, seek simplicity and distrust it.

Doubt is the origin of wisdom.

A healthy skepticism, regularly exercised…