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I know that I exist; the question is, What is this 'I' that 'I' know.
Rene Descartes -
And thereby make ourselves, as it were, the lords and masters of nature.
Rene Descartes
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A state is better governed which has few laws, and those laws strictly observed.
Rene Descartes -
The rainbow is such a remarkable phenomenon of nature, and its cause has been so meticulously sought after by inquiring minds throughout the ages, that I could not choose a more appropriate subject for demonstrating how, with the method I am using, we can arrive at knowledge not possessed at all by those whose writings are available to us.
Rene Descartes -
I was convinced that our beliefs are based much more on custom and example than on any certain knowledge.
Rene Descartes -
God alone is the author of all the motions in the world.
Rene Descartes -
The only secure knowledge is that I exist.
Rene Descartes -
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.
Rene Descartes
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...it is certain that I am really distinct from my body, and can exist without it.
Rene Descartes -
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.
Rene Descartes -
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.
Rene Descartes -
Sensations are nothing but confused modes of thinking.
Rene Descartes -
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.
Rene Descartes -
How do we know that anything really exists, that anything is really the way it seems ot us through our senses?
Rene Descartes
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I accept no principles of physics which are not also accepted in mathematics.
Rene Descartes -
Bad books engender bad habits, but bad habits engender good books.
Rene Descartes -
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'.
Rene Descartes -
Science is practical philosophy.
Rene Descartes -
We never understand a thing so well,and make it our own, as when we have discovered it for ourselves.
Rene Descartes -
An optimist may see a light where there is none, but why must the pessimist always run to blow it out?
Rene Descartes
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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.
Rene Descartes -
Neither divine grace nor natural knowledge ever diminishes freedom.
Rene Descartes -
Whenever anyone has offended me, I try to raise my soul so high that the offense cannot reach it.
Rene Descartes -
He who hid well, lived well.
Rene Descartes