-
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.
Rene Descartes -
The first precept was never to accept a thing as true until I knew it as such without a single doubt.
Rene Descartes
-
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.
Rene Descartes -
Omnia apud me mathematica fiunt.
Rene Descartes -
With me, everything turns into mathematics.
Rene Descartes -
Everything is self-evident.
Rene Descartes -
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.
Rene Descartes -
He lives well who is well hidden.
Rene Descartes
-
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.
Rene Descartes -
Your joy is your sorrow unmasked. And the self-same well from which your laughter rises was often-times filled with your tears.
Rene Descartes -
For to be possessed of a vigorous mind is not enough; the prime requisite is rightly to apply it.
Rene Descartes -
Just as we believe by faith that the greatest happiness of the next life consists simply in the contemplation of this divine majesty, likewise we experience that we derive the greatest joy of which we are capable in this life from the same contemplation, even though it is much less perfect.
Rene Descartes -
Give me extension and motion and I will construct the universe.
Rene Descartes -
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.
Rene Descartes
-
De omnibus dubitandum.
Rene Descartes -
Variant: When it is not in our power to follow what is true, we ought to follow what is most probable.
Rene Descartes -
Desire awakens only to things that are thought possible.
Rene Descartes -
Wonder is the first of all the passions.
Rene Descartes -
Instead I ought to be grateful to Him who never owed me anything for having been so generous to me, rather than think that He deprived me of those things or has taken away from me whatever He did not give me.
Rene Descartes -
Nothing is more fairly distributed than common sense: no one thinks he needs more of it than he already has.
Rene Descartes
-
In order to improve the mind, we ought less to learn, than to contemplate.
Rene Descartes -
When writing about transcendental issues, be transcendentally clear.
Rene Descartes -
I know that I exist; the question is, What is this 'I' that 'I' know.
Rene Descartes -
My third maxim was to try always to conquer myself rather than fortune, and to change my desires rather than the order of the world, and generally to accustom myself to believing that there is nothing entirely in our power except our thoughts, so that after we have done our best regarding things external to us, everything in which we do not succeed is for us absolutely impossible.
Rene Descartes