Jacques the Fatalist Quotes

“Life is but a series of misunderstandings.”
― Denis Diderot, Jacques the Fatalist

“The fact is that she was terribly undressed and I was extremely undressed too. The fact is that I still had my hand where she didn't have anything and she had hers where the same wasn't quite true of me. The fact is that I found myself underneath her and consequently she found herself on top of me.”
― Denis Diderot, Jacques the Fatalist

“It is better to reveal a weakness than allow oneself be suspected of a vice.”
― Denis Diderot, Jacques the Fatalist

“No matter how much a man may study, reflect and meditate on all the books in the world, he is nothing more than a minor scribe unless he has read the great book.”
― Denis Diderot, Jacques the Fatalist

“El pueblo, eterno esclavo de los tiranos que lo oprimen, de los bribones que lo engañan y de los bufones que lo divierten.”
― Denis Diderot, Jacques the Fatalist

“To speak to you frankly, Reader, I find that you are the more wicked of the two of us. How satisfied would I be if it were as easy for me to protect myself from your calumny as it is for you to protect yourself from the boredom or the danger of my work!”
― Denis Diderot, Jacques the Fatalist: And His Master

“أليس شيئاً مزعجاً! فهم يذمّون الحياةَ من الصصبح حتى المساء، ولا يستطيعون عقد العزم على مغادرتها!
أيكون السبب أن الحياة الراهنة ليست في مجملها بالشيء الرديء ، أم أنهم يخشون حياة قادمة أسوأ منها”
― Denis Diderot, Jacques the Fatalist

“There comes a moment when nearly all young girls and young boys become melancholic. They are disturbed by a vague uneasiness which extends to everything and can find no consolation. They look for solitude. They weep. The silence of the cloister moves them and the image of peace which seems to reign in religious houses seduces them. They mistake the first movements of their developing emotions for the voice of God calling them and it is at the precise moment when nature is calling to them that they embrace a life which is contrary to the laws of nature.”
― Denis Diderot, Jacques the Fatalist: And His Master

“Master, master, you obviously haven’t thought about this at all. We only ever feel sorry for ourselves, believe me.”
― Denis Diderot, Jacques the Fatalist: And His Master

“How many wisely conceived projects have failed and will fail in the future! How many insane projects have succeeded and will succeed!”
― Denis Diderot, Jacques the Fatalist: And His Master

“Because, without knowing what is written up above, none of us knows what we want or what we are doing, and we follow our whims which we call reason, or our reason which is often nothing but a dangerous whim which sometimes turns out well, sometimes badly.”
― Denis Diderot, Jacques the Fatalist: And His Master

“أدركتُ أن قول الحقيقة وحدها لا يكفي ، بل ينبغي أيضاً أن يكون طريفا”
― Denis Diderot, Jacques the Fatalist

“The enjoyment of freedom which could be exercised without any motivation would be the real hallmark of a maniac.”
― Denis Diderot, Jacques the Fatalist

“Ludzie, którzy coś powtarzają dwa razy, to głupcy mający za głupców tych, którzy ich słuchają”
― Denis Diderot, Jacques the Fatalist

“C'est que, faute de savoir ce qui est écrit là-haut, on ne sait ni ce qu'on veut ni ce qu'on fait, et qu'on suit sa fantaisie qu'on appelle raison, ou sa raison qui n'est souvent qu'une dangereuse fantaisie qui tourne tantôt bien, tantôt mal.”
― Denis Diderot, Jacques le fataliste et son maître

“How did they meet? By chance, like everyone else. What were their names? What’s it to you? Where did they come from? The nearest place. Where were they going? Do we know where we’re going? What did they say? The master said nothing; and Jacques said that his captain said that everything good and bad that happens to us down here was written up there.”
― Denis Diderot, Jacques le fataliste et son maître: Un roman de Denis Diderot

“Nada hay tan difícil de perdonar como el mérito.”
― Denis Diderot, Jacques the Fatalist

“It was ordained that you would have the title to the thing and I would have the thing itself.”
― Denis Diderot, Jacques the Fatalist: And His Master

“The first oath sworn by two creatures of flesh and blood was at the foot of a rock that was turning into dust. They called upon the heavens (which are never the same from one instant to the next) to witness their constancy. Although everything inside them and outside of them was changing, they believed their hearts to be immune to change. Oh children! You are still children…”
― Denis Diderot, Jacques the Fatalist: And His Master

“And he added that prudence in no way assured us of success but consoled us and excused us in failure.”
― Denis Diderot, Jacques the Fatalist: And His Master

“أنا ألهو بأن أكتب الحماقات التي ترتكبونها تحت أسماء مستعارة. فحماقاتكم تضحكني وكتاباتي تعكر مزاجكم”
― Denis Diderot, Jacques the Fatalist

“إنّ أول عهد قطعه على نفسيهما كائنان اثنان من لحم ودم، كان قرب صخرة انهارت فذهبت هباءً منثوراً. وقد أشهدا على ثبات عهدهما سماء لم تثبت أي لحظة على حال”
― Denis Diderot, Jacques the Fatalist

“كيف حاله؟
أفضل من الجميع . لقد مات!”
― Denis Diderot, Jacques the Fatalist

“Si en este mundo no se dice casi nada que sea escuchado como debiera, hay algo mucho peor, y es que no se hace casi nada que sea juzgado tal y como se ha hecho.”
― Denis Diderot, Jacques the Fatalist

“An immense castle over the front entrance of which one read: 'I belong to no one, and belong to all the world; you were in it before you entered it, and you will still be in it when you have gone out of it.”
― Denis Diderot, Jacques the Fatalist

“But who, he used to ask, can ever boast of having enough experience? Has even he who flatters himself on being the most experienced of men never been fooled? And then, what man is there who is capable of correctly assessing the circumstances in which he finds himself? The calculations which we make in our heads and the one recorded on the register up above are two very different calculations”
― Denis Diderot, Jacques the Fatalist

“MASTER: and if you want to gain time, why go as slowly as you are going?

JACQUES: Because, without knowing what is written up above, none of us knows what we want or what we are doing, and we follow our whims which we call reason, or our reason which is often nothing but a dangerous whim which sometimes turns out well, sometimes badly.”
― Denis Diderot, Jacques the Fatalist

“JACQUES: Moi, monsieur, à l'eau ! Jacques à l'eau bénite ! J'aimerais mieux que mille légions de diables me restassent dans le corps, que d'en boire une goutte, bénite ou non bénite.”
― Denis Diderot, Jacques le fataliste et son maître

“Racontez-moi les faits, rendez-moi fidèlement les propos, et je saurai bientôt à quel homme j'ai affaire. Un mot, un geste m'en ont quelquefois plus appris que le bavardage de toute une ville.”
― Denis Diderot, Jacques le fataliste et son maître

“la vérité a ses côtés piquants, qu'on saisit quand on a du génie; mais quand on en manque ? - Quand on en manque, il ne faut pas écrire.”
― Denis Diderot, Jacques le fataliste et son maître