A Passage from Diderot’s “Rameau’s Nephew” and the History of His Paris Monument

When I see a virtuous man perishing in poverty while a scoundrel bathes in luxury, I ask myself: what have we done with this world? We devised laws to curb crime, yet those very laws protect the criminal, provided he is rich. We extol the truth, yet chase after falsehood, because falsehood turns a profit. We laugh at folly, yet it feeds us, and we bow low before it. Which of us, monsieur, is not a hypocrite, if only a little? Only the man who wants nothing, fears nothing and has nothing.

Denis Diderot, Rameau's Nephew.

The monument to Diderot in Paris was erected in 1886 on the initiative of the Free Thought Committee, on the eve of the centenary of the philosopher's death. In the 1940s it was moved from the rue Saint-Benoît to the boulevard Saint-Germain. The sculptor was Jean Gautherin.

Diderot's monument was fortunate: during the occupation of Paris it was not melted down, unlike the monuments to Voltaire, Rousseau, Hugo, Béranger, Shakespeare, Diogenes, Lamartine, Zola and several dozen other eminent men.