Rene Descartes Quotes
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De omnibus dubitandum.
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God alone is the author of all the motions in the world.
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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.
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For to be possessed of a vigorous mind is not enough; the prime requisite is rightly to apply it.
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Wonder is the first of all the passions.
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The entire method consists in the order and arrangement of the things to which the mind's eye must turn so that we can discover some truth.
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Your joy is your sorrow unmasked. And the self-same well from which your laughter rises was often-times filled with your tears.
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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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How do we know that anything really exists, that anything is really the way it seems ot us through our senses?
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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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A state is better governed which has few laws, and those laws strictly observed.
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Few look for truth; many prowl about for a reputation of profundity by arrogantly challenging whichever arguments are the best.
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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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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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The only secure knowledge is that I exist.
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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.
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Intuition is the undoubting conception of a pure and attentive mind, which arises from the light of reason alone, and is more certain than deduction.
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Thus each truth discovered was a rule available in the discovery of subsequent ones.
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Science is practical philosophy.
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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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Divide each difficulty at hand into as many pieces as possible and as could be required to better solve them.
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Hence reason also demands that, since our thoughts cannot all be true because we are not wholly perfect, what truth they do possess must inevitably be found in the thoughts we have when awake, rather than in our dreams.