Several years have now passed since I fi rst realized how numerous were the false opinions that in my youth I had taken to be true, and thus how doub… - René Descartes

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Several years have now passed since I fi rst 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. And thus I realized that
once in my life I had to raze everything to the ground and begin again from the
original foundations, if I wanted to establish anything firm and lasting in the sciences.

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About René Descartes

René Descartes (March 31, 1596 – February 11, 1650) was a highly influential French philosopher, mathematician, physicist and writer. He is known for his influential arguments for substance dualism, where mind and body are considered to have distinct essences, one being characterized by thought, the other by spatial extension. He has been dubbed the "Father of Modern Philosophy" and the "Father of Modern Mathematics." He is also known as Cartesius.

Biography information from Wikiquote

Also Known As

Alternative Names: Descartes Cartesius Renatus Cartesius
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Shorter versions of this quote

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.

Additional quotes by René Descartes

[...] the diversity of our opinions, consequently, does not arise from some being endowed with a larger share of reason than others, but solely from this, that we conduct our thoughts along different ways, and do not fix our attention on the same objects. 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 excellences, 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.

The reading of all good books is like a conversation with the finest minds of past centuries.

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