"There is only one passion, the passion for happiness"
About this Quote
Diderot condenses an Enlightenment credo: beneath the swirl of desires lies a single drive to be happy. A leading editor of the Encyclopedie and a materialist, he aimed to ground ethics in human nature rather than theology. By calling happiness the one passion, he rejects moralities built on mortification or submission to authority, and turns attention to the real motives that animate ordinary life: pleasure, security, esteem, love, and the relief of pain.
The claim is not crude hedonism. It suggests that every passion, even those that appear selfless or severe, derives its force from the promise of some felicity. Ambition seeks the glow of recognition; charity answers the sweetness of sympathy; even asceticism chases the pride or tranquility it affords. Diderot often praised sensibility, the capacity to be moved by others, and saw virtue as enlightened self-interest shaped by our social nature. Our happiness is braided with the happiness of those around us; a society of wolves cannot make content lambs. In that sense the aphorism opens onto a public ethic: institutions, education, and the arts should cultivate desires that harmonize personal satisfaction with common well-being.
Yet the line also poses a challenge. If happiness is the single passion, what distinguishes fleeting gratification from durable flourishing? The Enlightenment answer invokes reason and prudence: we must learn to prefer the pleasures that expand our powers, our friendships, and our freedom over those that exhaust or enslave us. Diderots dialogues, from Rameaus Nephew to Supplement to Bougainvilles Voyage, dramatize the difficulty of aligning private joy with virtue and social order.
The sentence foreshadows utilitarian themes and the modern language of rights, including the pursuit of happiness. It also warns against moral systems that celebrate suffering for its own sake. At the same time, by making happiness paramount, it demands vigilance, because promises of imposed happiness can mask domination. The task is to make the one passion lucid, plural, and humane.
The claim is not crude hedonism. It suggests that every passion, even those that appear selfless or severe, derives its force from the promise of some felicity. Ambition seeks the glow of recognition; charity answers the sweetness of sympathy; even asceticism chases the pride or tranquility it affords. Diderot often praised sensibility, the capacity to be moved by others, and saw virtue as enlightened self-interest shaped by our social nature. Our happiness is braided with the happiness of those around us; a society of wolves cannot make content lambs. In that sense the aphorism opens onto a public ethic: institutions, education, and the arts should cultivate desires that harmonize personal satisfaction with common well-being.
Yet the line also poses a challenge. If happiness is the single passion, what distinguishes fleeting gratification from durable flourishing? The Enlightenment answer invokes reason and prudence: we must learn to prefer the pleasures that expand our powers, our friendships, and our freedom over those that exhaust or enslave us. Diderots dialogues, from Rameaus Nephew to Supplement to Bougainvilles Voyage, dramatize the difficulty of aligning private joy with virtue and social order.
The sentence foreshadows utilitarian themes and the modern language of rights, including the pursuit of happiness. It also warns against moral systems that celebrate suffering for its own sake. At the same time, by making happiness paramount, it demands vigilance, because promises of imposed happiness can mask domination. The task is to make the one passion lucid, plural, and humane.
Quote Details
| Topic | Happiness |
|---|---|
| Source | Rameau's Nephew (Le Neveu de Rameau), Denis Diderot; dialogue published posthumously 1805 — contains the line commonly translated as "There is only one passion, the passion for happiness." |
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