Rene Descartes Quotes

We do not describe the world we see,
we see the world we can describe.

Whenever anyone has offended me,
I try to raise my soul so high that the offense cannot reach it.

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

If you would be a real seeker after truth,
it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt,
as far as possible,
all things.

By 'God',
I understand,
a substance which is infinite,
independent,
supremely intelligent,
supremely powerful,
and which created both myself and everything else [...] that exists.
All these attributes are such that,
the more carefully I concentrate on them,
the less possible it seems that they could have originated from me alone.
So,
from what has been said it must be concluded that God necessarily exists.

De omnibus dubitandum

Divide each difficulty into as many parts as is feasible and necessary to resolve it.

Conquer yourself rather than the world.

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

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

Doubt is the origin of wisdom

Some years ago I was struck by the large number of falsehoods that I had accepted as true in my childhood,
and by the highly doubtful nature of the whole edifice that I had subsequently based on them.
I realized that it was necessary,
once in the course of my life,
to demolish everything completely and start again right from the foundations if I wanted to establish anything at all in the sciences that was stable and likely to last.

An optimist may see a light where there is none,
but why must the pessimist always run to blow it out?

The only thing we have power over in the universe is our own thoughts.

How can you be certain that your whole life is not a dream?

Omnia apud me mathematica fiunt.

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

I have concluded the evident existence of God,
and that my existence depends entirely on God in all the moments of my life,
that I do not think that the human spirit may know anything with greater evidence and certitude.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Situations in life often permit no delay;
and when we cannot determine the course which is certainly best,
we must follow the one which is probably the best.
This frame of mind freed me also from the repentance and remorse commonly felt by those vacillating individuals who are always seeking as worthwhile things which they later judge to be bad.

Before examining this more carefully and investigating its consequences,
I want to dwell for a moment in the contemplation of God,
to ponder His attributes in me,
to see,
admire,
and adore the beauty of His boundless light,
insofar as my clouded insight allows.
Believing that the supreme happiness of the other life consists wholly of the contemplation of divine greatness,
I now find that through less perfect contemplation of the same sort I can gain the greatest joy available in this life.

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

I think;
therefore I am.

For I found myself embarrassed with so many doubts and errors that it seemed to me that the effort to instruct myself had no effect other than th eincreasing discovery of my own ignorance

In philosophy,
when we make use of false principles,
we depart the farther from the knowledge of truth and wisdom exactly in proportion to the care with which we cultivate them,
and apply ourselves to the deduction of diverse consequences from them,
thinking that we are philosophizing well,
while we are only departing the farther from the truth;
from which it must be inferred that they who have learned the least of all that has been hitherto distinguished by the name of philosophy are the most fitted for the apprehension of truth.

The only secure knowledge is that I exist.

Nothing is more fairly distributed than common sense: no one thinks he needs more of it than he already has.

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

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

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

He who hid well,
lived well.

Perfect numbers like perfect men are very rare.

Reason is nothing without imagination.

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

Wonder is the first of all the passions.

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

It is best not to go on for great quest for truth ,
it will only make you miserable

Illusory joy is often worth more than genuine sorrow.

...it is certain that I am really distinct from my body,
and can exist without it.

All is to be doubted.

When 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?

The senses deceive from time to time,
and it is prudent never to trust wholly those who have deceived us even once.

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

My third maxim was to try always to conquer myself rather than fortune,
and to change my desires rather than the order of the world,
and generally to accustom myself to believing that there is nothing entirely in our power except our thoughts,
so that after we have done our best regarding things external to us,
everything in which we do not succeed is for us absolutely impossible.

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