Rene Descartes Quotes
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The only thing we have power over in the universe is our own thoughts.
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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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The mind effortlessly and automatically takes in new ideas, which remain in limbo until verified or rejected by conscious, rational analysis.
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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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An optimist may see a light where there is none, but why must the pessimist always run to blow it out?
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With me, everything turns into mathematics.
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Give me extension and motion and I will construct the universe.
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It is possible that I am dreaming right now and that all of my perceptions are false.
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Common sense is the most fairly distributed thing in the world, for each one thinks he is so well-endowed with it that even those who are hardest to satisfy in all other matters are not in the habit of desiring more of it than they already have.
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I know that I exist; the question is, What is this 'I' that 'I' know.
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The reading of all good books is indeed like a conversation with the noblest men of past centuries who were the authors of them, nay a carefully studied conversation, in which they reveal to us none but the best of their thoughts.
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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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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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And thereby make ourselves, as it were, the lords and masters of nature.
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When writing about transcendental issues, be transcendentally clear.
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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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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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As I considered the matter carefully it gradually came to light that all those matters only were referred to mathematics in which order and measurements are investigated, and that it makes no difference whether it be in numbers, figures, stars, sounds or any other object that the question of measurement arises. I saw consequently that there must be some general science to explain that element as a whole which gives rise to problems about order and measurement, restricted as these are to no special subject matter. This, I perceived was called 'universal mathematics'.
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Desire awakens only to things that are thought possible.
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Sensations are nothing but confused modes of thinking.
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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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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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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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Everything is self-evident.