There is such a strong connection between body and soul that thoughts that accompanied certain movements of our body at the beginning of our lives, g… - René Descartes

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.

Λαχταρούσα όσο κάνείς άλλος να κατακτήσω τος ουρανούς όμως, αφού έμαθα με απόλυτη βεβαιότητα ότι ο δρόμος είναι ανοιχτός τόσο για τους αδαείς όσο και για τους περισσότερο μορφωμένους, και ότι οι αλήθειες που αποκαλύπτονται και οι οποίες οδηγούν εκεί, είναι υπεράνω της διάνοιας μας, δεν θα τολμούσα να τις υποβάλω στους αδύναμους συλλογισμούς μου.

But immediately upon this I observed that, whilst I thus wished to think that all was false, it was absolutely necessary that I, who thus thought, should be somewhat; and as I observed that this truth, I think, therefore I am (cogito ergo sum), was so certain and of such evidence that no ground of doubt, however extravagant, could be alleged by the sceptics capable of shaking it, I concluded that I might, without scruple, accept it as the first principle of the philosophy of which I was in search … I thence concluded that I was a substance whose whole essence or nature consists only in thinking, and which, that it may exist, has need of no place, nor is dependent on any material thing; so that ‘I’, that is to say, the mind by which I am what I am, is wholly distinct from the body, and is even more easily known than the latter …