René Descartes Quotes

To know what people really think, pay regard to what they do, rather than what they say.

The first was never to accept anything as true that I did not plainly know to be such; that is to say, carefully to avoid hasty judgment and prejudice; and to include nothing more in my judgments than what presented itself to my mind so clearly and so distinctly that I had no occasion to call it in doubt. The second, to divide each of the difficulties I would examine into as many parts as possible and as was required in order better to resolve them. The third, to conduct my thoughts in an orderly fashion, by commencing with those objects that are simplest and easiest to know, in order to ascend little by little, as by degrees, to the knowledge of the most composite things, and by supposing an order even among those things that do not [19] naturally precede one another. And the last, everywhere to make enumerations so complete and reviews so general that I was assured of having omitted nothing.

Finally, if there be still persons who are not sufficiently persuaded of the existence of God and of the soul, by the reasons I have adduced, I am desirous that they should know that all the other propositions, of the truth of which they deem themselves perhaps more assured, as that we have a body, and that there exist stars and an earth, and such like, are less certain;

And yet firmly rooted in my mind is the long-standing opinion that there is an omnipotent God who made me the kind of creature that I am. How do I know that he has not brought it about that there is no earth, no sky, no extended thing, no shape, no size, no place, while at the same time ensuring that all these things appear to me to exist just as they do now? What is more, since I sometimes believe that others go astray in cases where they think they have the most perfect knowledge, may I not similarly go wrong every time I add two and three or count the sides of a square, or in some even simpler matter, if that is imaginable? But perhaps God would not have allowed me to be deceived in this way, since he is said to be supremely good...Once we have become aware that God exists it is necessary for us to imagine that he is a deceiver if we wish to cast doubt on what we clearly and distinctly perceive. And since it is impossible to imagine that he is a deceiver, whatever we clearly and distinctly perceive must be completely accepted as true...But since God is not a deceiver, it is quite clear that he does not transmit the ideas to me either directly from himself, or indirectly, via some creature [other than corporeal substance] … For God has given me no faculty at all for recognizing any such source for these ideas; on the contrary, he has given me a great propensity to believe that they are produced by corporeal things. It follows that corporeal things exist.

Αφιέρωσα την υπόλοιπη νιότη μου στα ταξίδια, στις επισκέψεις, σε αυλές και στρατεύματα, στη συναναστροφή με ανθρώπους με διαφορετικές ιδιοσυγκρασίες και από διαφορετικές τάξεις, στη συλλογή ποικίλων εμπειριών, στη δοκιμή του εαυτού μου μέσα από τις συναντήσεις που μου έφερνε η τύχη, συλλογιζόμενος πάντα τα όσα μου συνέβαιναν, έτσι ώστε να μπορέσω να αποκομίσω κάποιο όφελος από αυτά.

...the perusal of all excellent books is, as it were, to interview with the noblest men of past ages, who have written them.

Mais apud me omnia fiunt Mathematicè in Natura

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.

Je pense donc je suis

And I have always had an especially great desire to learn to distinguish the true from the false, in order to see my way clearly in my actions, and to go forward with confidence in this life. It is true that, so long as I merely considered the customs of other men, I found hardly anything there about which to be confident, and that I noticed there was about as much diversity as I had previously found among the opinions of philosophers. Thus the greatest profit I derived from this was that, on seeing many things that, although they seem to us very extravagant and ridiculous, do not cease to be commonly accepted and approved among other great peoples, I learned not to believe anything too firmly of which I had been persuaded only by example and custom; and thus I little by little freed myself from many errors that can darken our natural light and render us less able to listen to reason. But after I had spent some years thus studying in the book of the world and in trying to gain some experience, I resolved one day to study within myself too and to spend all the powers of my mind in choosing the paths that I should follow.

Και όπως ένας σκλάβος, που απολάμβανε στον ύπνο του μια φανταστική ελευθερία, μόλις αρχίσει να υποπτεύεται ότι ονειρεύεται, φοβάται μην ξυπνήσει και κρατάει τα μάτια τουκλειστά, ενώ ευχάριστες ψευδαισθήσεις τον νανουρίζουν, έτσι και εγώ επιστρέφω ασυναίσθητα στις παλιές απόψεις μου και φοβάμαι μήπως ξυπνήσω, μήπως η επώδυνη αφύπνιση που ακολουθεί μια γλυκιά γαλήνη, στο μέλλον δεν συμβεί κάτω από φως, αλλά μέσα στο δαιδαλώδες σκοτάδι των δυσκολιών που μόλις θίξαμε.

Yesterday’s meditation raised doubts — ones that are too serious to be ignored — which I can see no way of resolving. I feel like someone who is suddenly dropped into a deep whirlpool that tumbles him around so that he can neither stand on the bottom nor swim to the top. However, I shall force my way up, and try once more to carry out the project that I started on yesterday.

Nothing can be imagined which is too strange or incredible to have been said by some philosopher.

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

Several years have now passed since I first realized how numerous were the false opinions that in my youth I had taken to be true, and thus how doubtful were all those that I had subsequently built upon them.