Rene Descartes Quotes
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The only secure knowledge is that I exist.
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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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Bad books engender bad habits, but bad habits engender good books.
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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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I experienced in myself a certain capacity for judging which I have doubtless received from God, like all the other things that I possess; and as He could not desire to deceive me, it is clear that He has not given me a faculty that will lead me to err if I use it aright.
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And thereby make ourselves, as it were, the lords and masters of nature.
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Desire awakens only to things that are thought possible.
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Although my knowledge grows more and more, nevertheless I do not for that reason believe that it can ever be actually infinite, since it can never reach a point so high that it will be unable to attain any greater increase.
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Sensations are nothing but confused modes of thinking.
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God alone is the author of all the motions in the world.
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I was convinced that our beliefs are based much more on custom and example than on any certain knowledge.
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Science is practical philosophy.
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...it is certain that I am really distinct from my body, and can exist without it.
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A state is better governed which has few laws, and those laws strictly observed.
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He lives well who is well hidden.
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Whenever anyone has offended me, I try to raise my soul so high that the offense cannot reach it.
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Now therefore, that my mind is free from all cares, and that I have obtained for myself assured leisure in peaceful solitude, I shall apply myself seriously and freely to the general destruction of all my former opinions.
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In the matter of a difficult question it is more likely that the truth should have been discovered by the few than by the many.
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We call infinite that thing whose limits we have not perceived, and so by that word we do not signify what we understand about a thing, but rather what we do not understand.
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I accept no principles of physics which are not also accepted in mathematics.
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For each of us there is a set limit to our intellectual powers which we cannot pass.
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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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Divide each difficulty at hand into as many pieces as possible and as could be required to better solve them.