Rene Descartes Quotes
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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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I hope that posterity will judge me kindly, not only as to the things which I have explained, but also to those which I have intentionally omitted so as to leave to others the pleasure of discovery.
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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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Give me extension and motion and I will construct the universe.
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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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Let whoever can do so deceive me, he will never bring it about that I am nothing, so long as I continue to think I am something.
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With me, everything turns into mathematics.
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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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The only thing we have power over in the universe is our own thoughts.
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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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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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It is to the body alone that we should attribute everything that can be observed in us to oppose our reason.
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God alone is the author of all the motions in the world.
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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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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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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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When writing about transcendental issues, be transcendentally clear.
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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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We never understand a thing so well,and make it our own, as when we have discovered it for ourselves.
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And thereby make ourselves, as it were, the lords and masters of nature.
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What then is the source of my errors? They are owing simply to the fact that, since the will extends further than the intellect, I do not contain the will within the same boundaries; rather, I also extend it to things I do not understand. Because the will is indifferent in regard to such matters, it easily turns away from the true and the good; and in this way I am deceived and I sin.
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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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Desire awakens only to things that are thought possible.