René Descartes (1596-1650) was a French philosopher, scientist and mathematician, and he elaborated some of the most important philosophic theories in the world. Everybody has heard of the famous "I think; therefore I am". Read more René Descartes quotes
1“Doubt is the origin of wisdom.”
2"We do not describe the world we see, we see the world we can describe."
3"An optimist may see a light where there is none, but why must the pessimist always run to blow it out?”
4"I am accustomed to sleep and in my dreams to imagine the same things that lunatics imagine when awake."
5"Each problem that I solved became a rule, which served afterwards to solve other problems."
6"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."
7"The only thing we have power over in the universe is our own thoughts."
8"Conquer yourself rather than the world."
9The chief cause of human errors is to be found in the prejudices picked up in childhood."
10"A state is better governed which has few laws, and those laws strictly observed."
11"I am indeed amazed when I consider how weak my mind is and how prone to error."
12"To improve the mind, we must think more than memorize."
13"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."
14"It is not enough to have a good mind. The main thing is to use it well."
15"Divide each difficulty into as many parts as is feasible and necessary to resolve it."
16"The only thing that I know, is that I know nothing."
17"I know that I exist; the question is, what is this 'I' that 'I' know."
18“The greatest minds are capable of the greatest vices as well as of the greatest virtues.”
19“Nothing is more fairly distributed than common sense: no one thinks he needs more of it than he already has.”
20“Perfect numbers like perfect men are very rare.”
21“There is nothing so strange and so unbelievable that it has not been said by one philosopher or another.”
22"Everything is self-evident."
23"Illusory joy is often worth more than genuine sorrow."
24"In order to improve the mind, we ought less to learn, than to contemplate."
25"To know what people really think, observe what they do, not what they say."
26"The senses deceive from time to time, and it is prudent never to trust wholly those who have deceived us even once."
27"I think; therefore, I am."
28"You just keep pushing. You just keep pushing. I made every mistake that could be made. But I just keep pushing."
29"Traveling is almost like talking with those of other centuries."
30"The reading of all good books is like a conversation with the finest minds of past centuries."
