These Rene Descartes Quotes will surely inspire you in your life and gave you a new insight to his mind.
René Descartes was born on 31 March 1596 was a French philosopher, mathematician, and scientist. Descartes spent a large amount of his working life serving the Dutch States Army of Maurice of Nassau, Prince of Orange, and the Stadtholder of the United Provinces.
Descartes is also known as “The Father of Modern Western Philosophy”. Descartes’s work, writing, and quotes are still studied even after so many decades. His work has also help western philosophy to this date and continuous to do.
Also known as the father of analytical geometry, Descartes was one of the key figures in the Scientific Revolution. His most famous work Meditations On First Philosophy was published in 1641. In this book, he explains the philosophical groundwork for the possibility of the sciences.
Discourse of Method (1637), Principles of Philosophy (1644), and Passions of the soul (1649), also are some of his other books.
Descartes made an important connection between geometry and algebra, which allowed for the solving of geometrical problems by way of algebraic equations.
Here we are sharing Rene Descartes’s famous quotes for you to read and enjoy them also learn something from it and apply it to your life.
Rene Descartes Quotes
“I think; therefore I am.”
― Rene Descartes
“The reading of all good books is like conversation with the finest men of past centuries.”
― René Descartes
“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.”
― René Descartes
“I suppose therefore that all things I see are illusions; I believe that nothing has ever existed of everything my lying memory tells me. I think I have no senses. I believe that body, shape, extension, motion, location are functions. What is there then that can be taken as true? Perhaps only this one thing, that nothing at all is certain.”
― Rene Descartes
“Conquer yourself rather than the world.”
― René Descartes
“Common sense is the most widely shared commodity in the world, for every man is convinced that he is well supplied with it.”
― Rene Descartes
“Doubt is the origin of wisdom”
― Rene Descartes
“Except our own thoughts, there is nothing absolutely in our power.”
― René Descartes
“It is not enough to have a good mind; the main thing is to use it well.”
― Descartes
“To know what people really think, pay attention to what they do, rather than what they say.”
― Descartes
Descartes Famous Quote
“And thus, the actions of life often not allowing any delay, it is a truth very certain that, when it is not in our power to determine the truest opinions we ought to follow the most probable.”
― Rene Descartes, Discourse on Method
“The greatest minds are capable of the greatest vices as well as of the greatest virtues.”
― Rene Descartes
“I desire to live in peace and to continue the life I have begun under the motto ‘to live well you must live unseen”
― Rene Descartes, The Principles Of Philosophy
“It is only prudent never to place complete confidence in that by which we have even once been deceived.”
― René Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy
“You just keep pushing. You just keep pushing. I made every mistake that could be made. But I just kept pushing.”
― René Descartes
“But in my opinion, all things in nature occur mathematically.”
― Rene Decartes
“To live without philosophizing is in truth the same as keeping the eyes closed without attempting to open them.”
― René Descartes
“In order to seek truth, it is necessary once in the course of our life to doubt, as far as possible, of all things.”
― René Descartes
“There is nothing more ancient than the truth.”
― Rene Descartes
“In order to improve the mind, we ought less to learn than to contemplate.”
― Rene Descartes
Rene Descartes Most Famous Quotes
“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 the increasing discovery of my own ignorance”
― Rene Descartes
“Divide each difficulty into as many parts as is feasible and necessary to resolve it.”
― René Descartes, Discourse on Method
“He who hid well, lived well.”
― Rene Descartes
“Each problem that I solved became a rule which served afterwards to solve other problems”
― René Descartes
“At last I will devote myself sincerely and without reservation to the general demolition of my opinions.”
― Rene Descartes, Discourse on Method
“Because reason…is the only thing that makes us men, and distinguishes us from the beasts, I would prefer to believe that it exists, in its entirety, in each of us…”
― Descartes
“Let whoever can do so deceive me, he will never bring it about that I am nothing, so long as I continue to think I am something.”
― René Descartes
“With me, everything turns into mathematics.”
― Rene Descartes
“Good sense is the most equitably distributed of all things because no matter how much or little a person has, everyone feels so abundantly provided with good sense that he feels no desire for more than he already possesses.”
― René Descartes
“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.”
― René Descartes
Rene Descartes Quotes About Self
“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.”
― Rene Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy
“But I cannot forget that at other times I have been deceived in sleep by similar illusions; and, attentively considering those cases, I perceive so clearly that there exist no certain marks by which the state of waking can ever be distinguished from sleep, that I feel greatly astonished; and in amazement, I almost persuade myself that I am now dreaming.”
― Rene Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy
“So blind is the curiosity by which mortals are possessed, that they often conduct their minds along unexplored routes, having no reason to hope for success, but merely being willing to risk the experiment of finding whether the truth they seek lies there.”
― René Descartes, Rules for the Direction of the Mind
“Bad books engender bad habits, but bad habits engender good books.”
― René Descartes
“It is not enough to have a good mind. The main thing is to use it well.”
― René Descartes, Discourse on Method
“I am accustomed to sleep and in my dreams to imagine the same things that lunatics imagine when awake.”
― René Descartes
“It is best not to go on for great quest for truth , it will only make you miserable”
― René Descartes
“Nothing is more fairly distributed than common sense: no one thinks he needs more of it than he already has.”
― René Descartes, Discourse on Method
“But what then am I? A thing that thinks. What is that? A thing that doubts, understand, affirms, denies, wills, refuses, and that also imagines and senses.”
― René Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy
“Whatever I have up till now accepted as most true and assured I have gotten either from the senses or through the senses. But from time to time I have found that the senses deceive, and it is prudent never to trust completely those who have deceived us even once.”
― René Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy
Rene Descartes Sayings
“When I turn my mind’s eye upon myself, I understand that I am a thing which is incomplete and dependent on another and which aspires without limit to ever greater and better things…”
― René Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy
“I am the thing that thinks: that is, a thing that doubts, affirms, denies, understands a few things, is ignorant of many things, is willing, is unwilling, and also which imagines and has sensory perceptions.”
― René Descartes, Selections
“For to be possessed of a vigorous mind is not enough; the prime requisite is rightly to apply it. The greatest minds, as they are capable of the highest excellence, are open likewise to the greatest aberrations; and those who travel very slowly may yet make far greater progress, provided they keep always to the straight road than those who, while they run, forsake it.”
― René Descartes, Discourse on Method
“The destruction of the foundations necessarily brings down the whole edifice.”
― René Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy
“Whenever enyone has offended me, I try to raise my soul so high that the offense cannot reach it.”
― René Descartes
“Each problem that I solved became a rule, which served afterward to solve other problems.”
― René Descartes, Discourse on Method
“The dreams we imagine when we are asleep should not in any way make us doubt the truth of the thoughts we have when we are awake.”
― René Descartes, Discourse on Method and Meditations on First Philosophy
“And what more am I? I look for aid to the imagination. [But how mistakenly!] I am not that assemblage of limbs we call the human body; I am not a subtle penetrating air distributed throughout all these members; I am not a wind, a fire, a vapor, a breath or anything at all that I can image. I am supposing all these things to be nothing. Yet I find, while so doing, that I am still assured that I am a something.”
― René Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy
“Whence then come my errors? They come from the sole fact that since the will is much wider in its range and compass than the understanding, I do not restrain it within the same bounds, but extend it also to things which I do not understand: and as the will is of itself indifferent to these, it easily falls into error and sin, and chooses the evil for the good, or the false for the true.”
― René Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy
“For the very fact that my knowledge is increasing little by little is the most certain argument for its imperfection.”
― René Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy
Rene Descartes Philosophy Quotes
“One should never judge anything unless it is known.”
― René Descartes, Meditations and Other Metaphysical Writings
“Of 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.”
― René Descartes, Discourse on Method
“This result could have been achieved either by his [God] endowing my intellect with a clear and distinct perception of everything about which I would ever deliberate, or simply by impressing the following rule so firmly upon my memory that I could never forget it: I should never judge anything that I do not clearly and distinctly understand.”
― René Descartes
“The first precept was never to accept a thing as true until I knew it as such without a single doubt.”
― René Descartes
“My third maxim was to try always to master myself rather than fortune and change my desires rather than changing how things stand in the world.”
― Descartes, Discours de la Méthode
“Common sense is the best-distributed commodity in the world, for every man is convinced that he is well supplied with it.”
― René Descartes, Discourse on Method
“They do everything in their power to make fortune favor them in this life, but nevertheless they think so little of it, in relation to eternity, that they view the events of the world as we do those of a play.”
― René Descartes
“I had become aware, as early as my college days, that no opinion, however absurd and incredible can be imagined, that has not been held by one of the philosophers.”
― René Descartes, Discourse on Method
“It is thus quite certain that the constitution of the true religion, the ordinances of which are derived from God, must be incomparably superior to that of every other.”
― René Descartes, Discourse on Method and Meditations on First Philosophy
“Reading good books is like engaging in conversation with the most cultivated minds of past centuries who had composed them, or rather, taking part in a well-conducted dialogue in which such minds reveal to us only the best of their thoughts.”
― René Descartes, Discourse on Method and Meditations on First Philosophy
“Am I so tied to a body and senses that I am incapable of existing without them?”
― René Descartes, Meditations and Other Metaphysical Writings
Rene Descartes Quotes On God
“I fear being shaken out of them because I am afraid that my peaceful sleep may be followed by hard labour when I wake, and that I shall have to struggle not in the light but in the imprisoning darkness of the problems I have raised.”
― René Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy
“And, in fine, of false sciences I thought I knew the worth sufficiently to escape being deceived by the professions of an alchemist, the predictions of an astrologer, the impostures of a magician, or by the artifices and boasting of any of those who profess to know things of which they are ignorant.”
― René Descartes, Discourse on Method and Meditations on First Philosophy
“Those who reason most powerfully and are the most successful at ordering their thoughts so as to make them clear and intelligible will always be best able to persuade others of what they say, even if they speak in the thickest of dialects”
― René Descartes, A Discourse on the Method
“The first was never to accept anything for true which I did not clearly know to be such; that is to say, carefully to avoid precipitancy and prejudice, and to comprise nothing more in my judgment than what was presented to my mind so clearly and distinctly as to exclude all ground of doubt.”
― René Descartes, Discourse on Method
“When it is not in our power to determine what it true, we ought to follow what is most probable.”
― René Descartes
“Truths are more likely to have been discovered by one man than by nation”
― René Descartes
“The last rule was to make enumerations so complete, and reviews so comprehensive, that I should be certain of omitting nothing.”
― René Descartes, Discourse on Method
“For to be possessed of a vigorous mind is not enough; the prime requisite is rightly to apply it.”
― René Descartes, Discourse on Method and Meditations on First Philosophy
“Just as faith teaches us that the sovereign felicity of the other life consists in the contemplation of the divine majesty alone, so even now we can learn from experience that a similar meditation, although incomparably less perfect, allows us to enjoy the greatest happiness we are capable of feeling in this life.”
― René Descartes
Do you feel inspired by Rene Descartes Quotes?
Rene Descartes is famous for many quotes but this quote “I think, therefore I am” is a reflection of himself. This was the end of his research he conducted for a statement that could not be doubted. He found with this quote that he could no longer doubt his existence. It’s simple meaning is when you are thinking then you cannot doubt your existence.
Rene Descartes’s quotes can also be used in more metaphorical ways that provide a source of motivation. If can you dream something, you can achieve it. Do not doubt yourself anymore and keep working hard for your dreams.
Do share your thoughts with us in the comment section and tell us which one was your favorite Rene Descartes quotes or if you want to ask any questions or have any query send them via Contact Us
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