Rene Descartes
One cannot conceive anything so strange and so implausible that it has not already been said by one philosopher or another.
Rene DescartesTravelling is almost like talking with those of other centuries.
Rene DescartesGood sense is of all things in the world the most equally distributed, for everybody thinks he is so well supplied with it, that even those most difficult to please in all other matters never desire more of it than they already possess.
Rene DescartesWhen I consider this carefully, I find not a single property which with certainty separates the waking state from the dream. How can you be certain that your whole life is not a dream?
Rene DescartesTo know what people really think, pay regard to what they do, rather than what they say.
Rene DescartesIt is not enough to have a good mind; the main thing is to use it well.
Rene DescartesI 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.
Rene DescartesThe first precept was never to accept a thing as true until I knew it as such without a single doubt.
Rene DescartesDivide each difficulty into as many parts as is feasible and necessary to resolve it.
Rene DescartesThe greatest minds are capable of the greatest vices as well as of the greatest virtues.
Rene DescartesI think therefore I exist.
Rene DescartesThe two operations of our understanding, intuition and deduction, on which alone we have said we must rely in the acquisition of knowledge.
Rene DescartesThe long concatenations of simple and easy reasoning which geometricians use in achieving their most difficult demonstrations gave me occasion to imagine that all matters which may enter the human mind were interrelated in the same fashion.
Rene DescartesI concluded that I might take as a general rule the principle that all things which we very clearly and obviously conceive are true: only observing, however, that there is some difficulty in rightly determining the objects which we distinctly conceive.
Rene DescartesYou just keep pushing. You just keep pushing. I made every mistake that could be made. But I just kept pushing.
Rene DescartesIf you would be a real seeker after truth, you must at least once in your life doubt, as far as possible, all things.
Rene DescartesOf all things, good sense is the most fairly distributed: everyone thinks he is so well supplied with it that even those who are the hardest to satisfy in every other respect never desire more of it than they already have.
Rene DescartesI am indeed amazed when I consider how weak my mind is and how prone to error.
Rene DescartesExcept our own thoughts, there is nothing absolutely in our power.
Rene DescartesIt is only prudent never to place complete confidence in that by which we have even once been deceived.
Rene DescartesEach problem that I solved became a rule, which served afterwards to solve other problems.
Rene DescartesNothing is more fairly distributed that common sense: no one thinks he needs more of it than he already has.
Rene DescartesEverybody thinks himself so well supplied with common sense that even those most difficult to please. . . never desire more of it than they already have.
Rene DescartesIf we possessed a thorough knowledge of all the parts of the seed of any animal (e.g. man), we could from that alone, be reasons entirely mathematical and certain, deduce the whole conformation and figure of each of its members, and, conversely if we knew several peculiarities of this conformation, we would from those deduce the nature of its seed.
Rene DescartesIt is easy to hate and it is difficult to love. This is how the whole scheme of things works. All good things are difficult to achieve; and bad things are very easy to get.
Rene Descartes