The pit of a theatre is the one place where the tears of virtuous and wicked men alike are mingled.
Interpretation
The quote highlights the shared emotional experience of all individuals in the theatre, regardless of their moral standing.
Denis Diderot's quote underscores the unique power of theatre to evoke emotions that transcend morality. In the theatre, both virtuous and wicked individuals can find common ground in their emotional responses, suggesting that art has the ability to unite people through a shared experience of humanity, revealing a deeper connection that goes beyond good and evil.
In practice
This quote would be perfect for a speech on the importance of the arts in society.
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.
Art is the child of nature in whom we trace the features of the mothers face.
Taste is the best judge. It is rare. Art only addresses itself to an excessively small number of individuals.
Architecture should speak of its time and place, but yearn for timelessness.
Theatre is liberating because it only works if it's truthful, That's what it requires. That's not true of film: the camera does lie.
I'm a musician and, just as the critics are hard on me, I'm hard on the critics.
Fashion is something barbarous, for it produces innovation without reason and imitation without benefit.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.