7 Denis Diderot Quotes on Art

Denis Diderot quotes on art

15. I have often seen an actor laugh off the stage, but I don't remember ever having seen one weep.

    Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.

28. When superstition is allowed to perform the task of old age in dulling the human temperament, we can say goodbye to all excellence in poetry, in painting, and in music.

34. Only passions, and great passions, can raise the soul to great things. Without them there is no sublimity, either in morals or in creativity. Art returns to infancy, and virtue becomes small-minded.

49. The pit of a theatre is the one place where the tears of virtuous and wicked men alike are mingled.

52. Poetry must have something in it that is barbaric, vast and wild.

53. When shall we see poets born? After a time of disasters and great misfortunes, when harrowed nations begin to breathe again. And then, shaken by the terror of such spectacles, imaginations will paint things entirely strange to those who have not witnessed them.

54. Shakespeare's fault is not the greatest into which a poet may fall. It merely indicates a deficiency of taste.