Rene Descartes Quotes
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Human wisdom remains always one and the same although applied to the most diverse objects and it is no more changed by their diversity than the sunshine is changed by the variety of objects which it illuminates.
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In philosophy, when we make use of false principles, we depart the farther from the knowledge of truth and wisdom exactly in proportion to the care with which we cultivate them, and apply ourselves to the deduction of diverse consequences from them, thinking that we are philosophizing well, while we are only departing the farther from the truth; from which it must be inferred that they who have learned the least of all that has been hitherto distinguished by the name of philosophy are the most fitted for the apprehension of truth.
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But I cannot forget that, at other times I have been deceived in sleep by similar illusions; and, attentively considering those cases, I perceive so clearly that there exist no certain marks by which the state of waking can ever be distinguished from sleep, that I feel greatly astonished; and in amazement I almost persuade myself that I am now dreaming.
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Everybody thinks himself so well supplied with common sense that even those most difficult to please. . . never desire more of it than they already have.
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These long chains of perfectly simple and easy reasonings by means of which geometers are accustomed to carry out their most difficult demonstrations had led me to fancy that everything that can fall under human knowledge forms a similar sequence; and that so long as we avoid accepting as true what is not so, and always preserve the right order of deduction of one thing from another, there can be nothing too remote to be reached in the end, or to well hidden to be discovered.
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There is a little gland in the brain in which the soul exercises its functions in a more particular way than in the other parts.
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Everything is self-evident.
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When writing about transcendental issues, be transcendentally clear.
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Give me extension and motion and I will construct the universe.
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The nature of matter, or body considered in general, consists not in its being something which is hard or heavy or coloured, or which affects the senses in any way, but simply in its being something which is extended in length, breadth and depth.
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The entire method consists in the order and arrangement of the things to which the mind's eye must turn so that we can discover some truth.
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We never understand a thing so well,and make it our own, as when we have discovered it for ourselves.
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For to be possessed of a vigorous mind is not enough; the prime requisite is rightly to apply it.
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With me, everything turns into mathematics.
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Bad books engender bad habits, but bad habits engender good books.
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Nothing is more fairly distributed than common sense: no one thinks he needs more of it than he already has.
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I know that I exist; the question is, What is this 'I' that 'I' know.
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Every man is indeed bound to do what he can to promote the good of others, and a man who is of no use to anyone is strictly worthless.
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For I found myself embarrassed with so many doubts and errors that it seemed to me that the effort to instruct myself had no effect other than th eincreasing discovery of my own ignorance.
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Your joy is your sorrow unmasked. And the self-same well from which your laughter rises was often-times filled with your tears.
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The first precept was never to accept a thing as true until I knew it as such without a single doubt.
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If I simply refrain from making a judgment in cases where I do not perceive the truth with sufficient clarity and distinctness, then it is clear that I am behaving correctly and avoiding error.
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And thereby make ourselves, as it were, the lords and masters of nature.
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God alone is the author of all the motions in the world.