Rene Descartes Quotes

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

Good, Mind, Enough

Quote

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

Necessary, Difficulty, Resolve

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

May, Why, Light

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

Trust, Time, Once

I think; therefore I am.
Rene Descartes

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

Made, Keep, Mistake

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

Truth, Life, Real

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

Dreams, Sleep, Same

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

Try, Soul, Cannot

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

Good, Past, Minds

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

Few, State, Laws

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

Science, Problem, Problems

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

True, Single, Doubt

Perfect numbers like perfect men are very rare.
Rene Descartes

Men, Perfect, Rare

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

Power, Nothing, Thoughts

Common sense is the most fairly distributed thing in the world, for each one thinks he is so well-endowed with it that even those who are hardest to satisfy in all other matters are not in the habit of desiring more of it than they already have.
Rene Descartes

Sense, Common, Matters

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

Hope, Judge, Others

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

Nothing, Sense, Common

Everything is self-evident.
Rene Descartes

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

Confidence, Place, Once

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

Power, True, Follow

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

Greatest, Minds, Capable

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

Mind, Learn, Less

Travelling is almost like talking with those of other centuries.
Rene Descartes

Almost, Talking, Travelling

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

Knowledge, Alone, Two

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Biography

Nationality: French

Type: Mathematician

Born: March 31, 1596

Died: February 11, 1650

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Cite this Page: Citation

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