To attempt the destruction of our passions is the height of folly. What a noble aim is that of the zealot who tortures himself like a madman in order to desire nothing, love nothing, feel nothing, and who, if he succeeded, would end up a complete monster!
Interpretation
Suppressing one's emotions is foolish and can lead to a loss of humanity.
Denis Diderot argues that attempting to eliminate our passions and emotions is not only misguided but may also lead to a loss of our essential humanity. The zealot who tries to desire, love, and feel nothing becomes a monster, as emotions are integral to our existence and identity. Diderot emphasizes the importance of embracing our passions rather than denying them, suggesting that doing so can lead to a richer and more meaningful life.
In practice
In a motivational speech about embracing your feelings, you might quote Diderot to highlight that emotions enrich our lives.
The arbitrary rule of a just and enlightened prince is always bad. His virtues are the most dangerous and the surest form of seduction: they lull a people imperceptibly into the habit of loving, respecting, and serving his successor, whoever that successor may be, no matter how wicked or stupid.
This root [the potato], no matter how much you prepare it, is tasteless and floury. It cannot pass for an agreeable food, but it supplies a food sufficiently abundant and sufficiently healthy for men who ask only to sustain themselves. The potato is criticized with reason for being windy, but what matters windiness for the vigorous organisms of peasants and laborers?
Do you see this egg? With this you can topple every theological theory, every church or temple in the world.
There are three principal means of acquiring knowledge... observation of nature, reflection, and experimentation. Observation collects facts; reflection combines them; experimentation verifies the result of that combination.
In order to get as much fame as one's father one has to much more able than he.
All abstract sciences are nothing but the study of relations between signs.
Democracy is not merely a form of government. It is primarily a mode of associated living, of conjoint communicated experience. It is essentially an attitude of respect and reverence towards fellow men.
The history of mankind is the history of our misunderstandings with god, for he doesn't understand us, and we don't understand him.
Consider that the trials and troubles, the calamities and miseries, the crosses and losses that you meet with in this world, are all the hell that ever you shall have.
Know thyself? If I knew myself I would run away.
Pierre looked into the sky, into the depths of the retreating, twinkling stars. "And all this is mine, and all this is in me, and all this is me!" thought Pierre. "And all this they've caught and put in a shed and boarded it up!
Challenging the meaning of life is the truest expression of the state of being human.
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