A Quote by Denis Diderot

A thing is not proved because no one has ever questioned it... Skepticism is the first step toward truth.

Denis Diderot

Quote Topics

Because Ever First First Step Proved Questioned Skepticism Step Thing Toward Truth

Quote Author

Denis Diderot
French - Editor
October 5, 1713 - July 31, 1784

A thing is not proved just because no one has ever questioned it. What has never been gone into impartially has never been properly gone into. Hence scepticism is the first step toward truth. It must be applied generally, because it is the touchstone.

Denis Diderot

The first step toward finding God, Who is Truth, is to discover the truth about myself: and if I have been in error, this first step to truth is the discovery of my error.

Thomas Merton

Birth control is the first important step woman must take toward the goal of her freedom. It is the first step she must take to be man's equal. It is the first step they must both take toward human emancipation.

Margaret Sanger

Scepticism is the first step toward truth.

Denis Diderot

To exercise no-thought and rest in nothing is the first step toward resting in Tao. To start from nowhere and follow no road is the first step toward attaining Tao.

Zhuangzi

Were not cutting the budget simply for the sake of sounder financial management. This is only a first step toward returning power to the states and communities, only a first step toward reordering the relationship between citizen and government.

Ronald Reagan

The first step toward telling the truth is to tell the whole lie.

Robert Breault

What has not been examined impartially has not been well examined. Skepticism is therefore the first step towards truth.

Denis Diderot

I have found that you have only to take that one step toward the gods, and they will then take ten steps toward you. That step, the heroic first step of the journey, is out of, or over the edge of, your boundaries, and it often must be taken before you know that you will.

Joseph Campbell

The first step toward greatness is to be honest, says the proverb; but the proverb fails to state the case strong enough. Honesty is not only "the first step toward greatness," - it is greatness itself.

Christian Nestell Bovee

Skepticism is the first step on the road to philosophy.

Denis Diderot

To a resolute mind, wishing to do is the first step toward doing. But if we do not wish to do a thing it becomes impossible.

Robert Southey

The first step toward tolerance is respect and the first step toward respect is knowledge.

Henry Louis Gates

The decisive step in evolution, the first step toward macroevolution, the step from one species to another, requires another evolutionary method than that of sheer accumulation of micromutations.