If there is one realm in which it is essential to be sublime, it is in wickedness. You spit on a petty thief, but you can't deny a kind of respect for the great criminal.
Interpretation
This quote suggests that while minor wrongdoings are disdainful, there is a certain respect that can be given to those who commit grander acts of wickedness.
Denis Diderot reflects on the nature of wickedness, proposing that while society tends to scorn small-time criminals, there exists a fascination or even a form of respect for those who engage in more significant, audacious crimes. This distinction raises questions about morality, ethics, and the complexity of human behavior, highlighting how society’s judgments can vary based on the magnitude of wrongdoing.
In practice
In a literary analysis of Diderot's work, this quote could be used to explore themes of morality and respect.
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.
One thing is certain: When the time has come, nothing which is man-made will subsist. One day, all human accomplishments will be reduced to a pile of ashes. But every single child to whom a has given birth will live forever, for he has been given an immortal soul made to God's image and likeness.
The wake doesn't drive the ship
It now lately sometimes seemed a black miracle to me that people could actually care deeply about a subject or pursuit, and could go on caring this way for years on end. Could dedicate their entire lives to it. It seemed admirable and at the same time pathetic. We are all dying to give our lives away to something, maybe.
To say that there is patriarchy in Arab culture is not denying women agency.
Ambition and hatred are enough to bring Iraq and al Qaeda together.
I thank my God for graciously granting me the opportunity of learning that death is the key which unlocks the door to our true happiness.
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