Overlapping to a large degree with how Diderot himself felt in 1746, the skeptic’s voice comes across most effectively in a series of aphorisms emblematic of the Enlightenment movement as a whole. The first became Diderot’s mantra: “Skepticism is the first step toward truth.”56 The second is a logical clarification of this point: “What has never been called into question has never been proven.”57 And the third is a forceful declaration of the right to think freely: “One can demand of me that I seek truth, but not that I must find
