If you want me to believe in God, you must make me touch him. - Denis Diderot

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.

One may demand of me that I should seek truth, but not that I should find it.

Indeed, the purpose of an encyclopedia is to collect knowledge disseminated around the globe; to set forth its general system to the men with whom we live, and transmit it to those who will come after us, so that the work of preceding centuries will not become useless to the centuries to come; and so that our offspring, becoming better instructed, will at the same time become more virtuous and happy, and that we should not die without having rendered a service to the human race in the future years to come.