Rene Descartes Quotes


"Nothing is more fairly distributed than common sense: no one thinks he needs more of it than he already has."
- Rene Descartes
(Related: Needs, Nothing)

"One cannot conceive anything so strange and so implausible that it has not already been said by one philosopher or another."
- Rene Descartes
"Perfect numbers like perfect men are very rare."
- Rene Descartes
(Related: Men, Numbers)

"The first precept was never to accept a thing as true until I knew it as such without a single doubt."
- Rene Descartes
(Related: Doubt, First)

"The greatest minds are capable of the greatest vices as well as of the greatest virtues."
- Rene Descartes
(Related: Vices)

"The reading of all good books is like a conversation with the finest minds of past centuries."
- Rene Descartes
(Related: Books, Conversation, Past, Reading)

"The senses deceive from time to time, and it is prudent never to trust wholly those who have deceived us even once."
- Rene Descartes
(Related: Time, Trust, Senses)

"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
(Related: Knowledge, Intuition, Understanding)

"There is nothing so strange and so unbelievable that it has not been said by one philosopher or another."
- Rene Descartes
(Related: Nothing)

"When it is not in our power to follow what is true, we ought to follow what is most probable."
- Rene Descartes
(Related: Power)

"You just keep pushing. You just keep pushing. I made every mistake that could be made. But I just kept pushing."
- Rene Descartes
(Related: Mistake)

"An optimist may see a light where there is none, but why must the pessimist always run to blow it out?"
- Rene Descartes
(Related: Light, May)

"It is only prudent never to place complete confidence in that by which we have even once been deceived."
- Rene Descartes
(Related: Confidence)

"Travelling is almost like talking with those of other centuries."
- Rene Descartes
(Related: Talking)

"I am accustomed to sleep and in my dreams to imagine the same things that lunatics imagine when awake."
- Rene Descartes
(Related: Dreams, Sleep)

"It is not enough to have a good mind; the main thing is to use it well."
- Rene Descartes
(Related: Mind)

"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
(Related: Habit, Common sense, World)

"A state is better governed which has few laws, and those laws strictly observed."
- Rene Descartes
(Related: Laws, State)

"Each problem that I solved became a rule, which served afterwards to solve other problems."
- Rene Descartes
(Related: Problems)

"Divide each difficulty into as many parts as is feasible and necessary to resolve it."
- Rene Descartes
(Related: Difficulty)

"Except our own thoughts, there is nothing absolutely in our power."
- Rene Descartes
(Related: Power, Thoughts, Nothing)

"I am indeed amazed when I consider how weak my mind is and how prone to error."
- Rene Descartes
(Related: Error, Mind)

"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
(Related: Hope, Discovery, Pleasure, Posterity, Will)

"I think; therefore I am."
- Rene 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."
- Rene Descartes
(Related: Life, Truth, Doubt)

"Illusory joy is often worth more than genuine sorrow."
- Rene Descartes
(Related: Joy, Sorrow, Worth)

"In order to improve the mind, we ought less to learn, than to contemplate."
- Rene Descartes
(Related: Mind, Order)

"Everything is self-evident."
- Rene Descartes
(Related: Self)