"Where would we be, if perverse men could turn false that which is true, bad that which is good, or ugly that which is beautiful? The true, the good and the beautiful form, in my eyes, a group of three great figures, around which evil can raise up a storm of dust that may conceal them from the eyes of the majority, but the time passes, the cloud dissipates, and they reappear as venerable as ever."

- Diderot, 1782 "Essay on the Reigns of Claudius and Nero"