One cannot conceive anything so strange and so implausible that it has not already been said by one philosopher or another.
—Rene Descartes
Topics: Philosophers, Peculiarity, Oddity, Philosophy
In order to improve the mind, we ought less to learn, than to contemplate.
—Rene Descartes
Topics: Wisdom, Think
Everything is self-evident.
—Rene Descartes
Topics: Reality
It is only prudent never to place complete confidence in that by which we have even once been deceived.
—Rene Descartes
Topics: Confidence
It is not enough to have a good mind. The main thing is to use it well.
—Rene Descartes
Topics: Mind, Love, Letters, Thinking
Thus even in the very example my critics produce, it is the intellect alone which corrects the error of the senses; and it is not possible to produce any case which error results from our trusting the operation of the mind more than the senses.
—Rene Descartes
We never understand a thing so well, and make it our own, as when we have discovered it for ourselves.
—Rene Descartes
Topics: Self-Discovery
I 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 Descartes
Topics: Legacy
Except our own thoughts, there is nothing absolutely in our power.
—Rene Descartes
Topics: Thought, Thoughts, Thinking
When any one has offended me, I try to raise my soul so high that the offense cannot reach it.
—Rene Descartes
Topics: Insults, Meditation
The only secure knowledge is that I exist
—Rene Descartes
Topics: One liners, Philosophy
The reading of all good books is indeed like a conversation with the noblest men of past centuries who were the authors of them, nay a carefully studied conversation, in which they reveal to us none but the best of their thoughts.
—Rene Descartes
Topics: Wisdom, Reading, Learning
Divide each difficulty into as many parts as is feasible and necessary to resolve it.
—Rene Descartes
Topics: Difficulty, Simplicity
Nothing is more fairly distributed than common sense: no one thinks he needs more of it than he already has.
—Rene Descartes
Topics: Common Sense, Common Sense
Each problem that I solved became a rule which served afterwards to solve other problems.
—Rene Descartes
Topics: Knowledge, Problems, War, Rationality
There may indeed be those who would prefer to deny the existence of a God so powerful, rather than believe that all other things are uncertain. But let us not oppose them for the present, and grant that all that is here said of a God is a fable; nevertheless in whatever way they suppose that I have arrived at the state of being that I have reached—whether they attribute it to fate or to accident, or make out that it is by a continual succession of antecedents, or by some other method—since to err and deceive oneself is a defect, it is clear that the greater will be the probability of my being so imperfect as to deceive myself ever, as is the Author to whom they assign my origin the less powerful. To these reasons I have certainly nothing to reply, but at the end I feel constrained to confess that there is nothing in all that I formerly believed to be true, of which I cannot in some measure doubt, and that not merely through want of thought or through levity, but for reasons which are very powerful and maturely considered; so that henceforth I ought not the less carefully to refrain from giving credence to these opinions than to that which is manifestly false, if I desire to arrive at any certainty in the sciences.
—Rene Descartes
Topics: Belief
I am accustomed to sleep, and in my dreams to imagine the same things that lunatics imagine when awake.
—Rene Descartes
Topics: Sleep, Dreams
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.
—Rene Descartes
Topics: Doubt
When writing about transcendental issues, be transcendentally clear.
—Rene Descartes
Topics: Authors & Writing
The chief cause of human errors is to be found in prejudices picked up in childhood.
—Rene Descartes
It is well to know something of the manners of various peoples, in order more sanely to judge our own, and that we do not think that everything against our modes is ridiculous, and against reason, as those who have seen nothing are accustomed to think.
—Rene Descartes
Topics: Equality
To know what people really think, pay regard to what they do, rather than what they say.
—Rene Descartes
Topics: Behavior, Manners
Illusory joy is often worth more than genuine sorrow.
—Rene Descartes
I think therefore I am.
—Rene Descartes
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
- Emanuel Swedenborg Swedish Mystic, Theologian, Scientist
- Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz German Philosopher, Mathematician
- Robert Anton Wilson American Polymath
- Thales of Miletus Greek Philosopher, Mathematician
- Karl Popper Austrian-born British Philosopher
- Baruch Spinoza Dutch Philosopher
- Blaise Pascal French Philosopher, Scientist
- Francis Bacon English Philosopher
- Friedrich Schleiermacher German Theologian
- John Locke English Philosopher
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