Rene Descartes quotes: wise famous quotes, sayings and quotations by Rene Descartes

Rene Descartes Famous Quotes & Sayings

Discover top inspirational quotes from Rene Descartes on Wise Famous Quotes.

But, because I had already very clearly recognized in myself that the intelligent nature is distinct from the corporeal,

Truths are more likely to be discovered by one man than by a nation

It is prudent never to trust those who have deceived us, even if only once.

All that is necessary to right action is right judgment, and to the best action the most correct judgment

The only secure knowledge is that I exist.

Perfect numbers like perfect men are very rare.

There is nothing more ancient than the truth.

Those who move but very slowly, may advance much farther, if they always follow the right way; then those who run and straggle from it.

Conquer yourself rather than the world.

The only thing that I know, is that I know nothing

The thinking of the mind is twofold: understanding and willing.

When writing about transcendental issues, be transcendentally clear.

Each problem that I solved became a rule, which served afterwards to solve other problems.

In order to improve the mind, we ought less to learn than to contemplate.

Dubito, ergo cogito, ergo sum.

(English: "I doubt, therefore I think, therefore I am")

One cannot conceive anything so strange and so implausible that it has not already been said by one philosopher or another.

Dubium sapientiae initium. (Doubt is the origin of wisdom.)

So that there resulted a chaos as disordered as the poets ever feigned,

that we conduct our thoughts along different ways, and do not fix our attention on the same objects.

The mind effortlessly and automatically takes in new ideas, which remain in limbo until verified or rejected by conscious, rational analysis.

God alone is the author of all the motions in the world.

Few look for truth; many prowl about for a reputation of profundity by arrogantly challenging whichever arguments are the best.

I am accustomed to sleep and in my dreams to imagine the same things that lunatics imagine when awake.

Booty Butt, Booty Butt, Booty Butt Cheeks

Everything is self-evident.

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.

All is to be doubted.

It is a common failing of mortals to deem the more difficult the fairer.

If ... it is not in my power to arrive at the knowledge of any truth, I may at least do what is in my power, namely, suspend judgement ...

A state is better governed which has few laws, and those laws strictly observed.

For to be possessed of a vigorous mind is not enough; the prime requisite is rightly to apply it.

Nothing is made from nothing.

To know what people really think, pay attention to what they do, rather than what they say.

Thus each truth discovered was a rule available in the discovery of subsequent ones.

We never understand a thing so well,and make it our own, as when we have discovered it for ourselves.

Give me extension and motion and I will construct the universe.

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.

He who hid well, lived well.

Bad books engender bad habits, but bad habits engender good books.

Doubt is the origin of wisdom

It is not enough to have a good mind; the main thing is to use it well.

Bene vixit, bene qui latuit.
(to live well is to live concealed)

The greatest minds are capable of the greatest vices as well as of the greatest virtues.

I desire to live in peace and to continue the life I have begun under the motto 'to live well you must live unseen

Illusory joy is often worth more than genuine sorrow.

When it is not in our power to follow what is true, we ought to follow what is most probable.

The reading of all good books is like conversation with the finest men of past centuries.

I took especially great pleasure in mathematics because of the certainty and the evidence of its arguments.

Wonder is the first of all the passions.

He who lives well lives well hidden.

I accept no principles of physics which are not also accepted in mathematics.

I must finally conclude that this proposition, I am, I exist, is necessarily true whenever it is put forward by me or conceived in my mind.

For 'tis not enough to have good faculties, but the principal is, to apply them well.

Masked, I advance.

I think, therefore I am" vs. "As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.

to live well you must live
unseen

Certainly no one can deny that we have such an idea of God in ourselves unless they think that there is no knowledge at all of God in human minds.

It is a mark of prudence never to place our complete trust in those who have deceived us even once.

It is possible that I am dreaming right now and that all of my perceptions are false.

There is a little gland in the brain in which the soul exercises its functions in a more particular way than in the other parts.

There is nothing so far removed from us to be beyond our reach, or so far hidden that we cannot discover it.

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.

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.

I can doubt everything, except one thing, and that is the very fact that I doubt. Simply put - I think, therefore I am

It is only prudent never to place complete confidence in that by which we have even once been deceived.

Sensations are nothing but confused modes of thinking.

To live without philosophizing is in truth the same as keeping the eyes closed without attempting to open them.

It appears to me that I have discovered many truths more useful and more important than all I had before learned, or even had expected to learn.

A person has two passions for love and abhorrence. A big disposition to excessiveness has just a love, because it is more ardent and stronger.

Except our own thoughts, there is nothing absolutely in our power.

I know that I exist; the question is, What is this 'I' that 'I' know.

Divide each difficulty at hand into as many pieces as possible and as could be required to better solve them.

One should never judge anything unless it is known.

In order to seek truth, it is necessary once in the course of our life to doubt, as far as possible, of all things.

One needs to know what thought is, what existence is and what certainty is.

Nothing comes out of nothing.

The will determines itself; it should not be described as blind, any more than vision should be described as deaf.

Common sense is the most widely shared commodity in the world, for every man is convinced that he is well supplied with it.

Am I so tied to a body and senses that I am incapable of existing without them?

But possibly I am something more than I suppose myself to be.

I was convinced that our beliefs are based much more on custom and example than on any certain knowledge.

With me, everything turns into mathematics.

Mathematics is a more powerful instrument of knowledge than any other that has been bequeathed to us by human agency.

I am thinking, therefore I exist.

Science is practical philosophy.

At last I will devote myself sincerely and without reservation to the general demolition of my opinions.

You just keep pushing. You just keep pushing. I made every mistake that could be made. But I just kept pushing.

If I find some reason for doubt in each of my beliefs, that will be enough to reject all of them.

To think? That's it. It is thought. This alone cannot be detached from me. I am, I exist; that is certain.

I am indeed amazed when I consider how weak my mind is and how prone to error.

For each of us there is a set limit to our intellectual powers which we cannot pass.

Desire awakens only to things that are thought possible.

He lives well who is well hidden.

Truths are more likely to have been discovered by one man than by nation

Reason is nothing without imagination.

But in my opinion, all things in nature occur mathematically.

The first precept was never to accept a thing as true until I knew it as such without a single doubt.

The chief cause of human errors is to be found in the prejudices picked up in childhood.

It is contrary to reasoning to say that there is a vacuum or space in which there is absolutely nothing.

The two operations of our understanding, intuition and deduction, on which alone we have said we must rely in the acquisition of knowledge.