I can have no hope of approaching the truth except by departing from the paths they [the Ancients] have followed.
1649
Source: The Passions of the Soul/1649 edition
René Descartes
René Descartes (31 March 1596 – 11 February 1650) was a French philosopher, mathematician, and scientist. A native of the Kingdom of France, he spent about 20 years (1629–1649) of his life in the Dutch Republic.
Everything that is done, or that happens anew, is [...] a Passion with regard to the subject to which it happens, & an Action with regard to the one who makes it happen.
1649
Source: The Passions of the Soul/1649 edition
There is no better way to come to the knowledge of our Passions than to examine the difference between the soul and the body.
1649
Source: The Passions of the Soul/1649 edition
It is an error to believe that the soul gives movement and heat to the body.
1649
Source: The Passions of the Soul/1649 edition
Death never comes through the fault of the soul, but only because one of the principal parts of the body decays.
1649
Source: The Passions of the Soul/1649 edition
All the movements we make without our will contributing to them [...] depend only on the conformation of our members [...] in the same way that the movement of a watch is produced by the sole force of its spring and the shape of its wheels.
1649
Source: The Passions of the Soul/1649 edition
There remains nothing in us that we should attribute to our soul, except our thoughts, which are [...] the actions of the soul, [and] its passions.
1649
Source: The Passions of the Soul/1649 edition
One cannot [...] be mistaken [...] concerning the passions, because they are so close and so internal to our soul that it is impossible for it to feel them without their being truly as it feels them.
1649
Source: The Passions of the Soul/1649 edition
The principal effect of all the passions in men is that they incite and dispose their soul to want the things for which they prepare their body.
1649
Source: The Passions of the Soul/1649 edition
The will is by its nature so free that it can never be constrained.
1649
Source: The Passions of the Soul/1649 edition
Our passions cannot be directly aroused or removed by the action of our will, but they can be indirectly, by the representation of things that are usually joined with the passions we wish to have.
1649
Source: The Passions of the Soul/1649 edition
Those in whom the will can most easily conquer the passions [...] undoubtedly have the strongest souls.
1649
Source: The Passions of the Soul/1649 edition
The weakest of all souls are those whose will [...] allows itself to be continually carried away by the present passions, which [...] put the soul in the most deplorable state it can be.
1649
Source: The Passions of the Soul/1649 edition
The strength of the soul is not enough without the knowledge of truth.
1649
Source: The Passions of the Soul/1649 edition
There is no soul so weak that it cannot, if well-directed, acquire an absolute power over its passions.
1649
Source: The Passions of the Soul/1649 edition
It is [...] such a praiseworthy virtue to judge others favorably.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
[One must avoid] wanting to measure the scope of the human mind by the example of common people.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
Repentance [...] serves to make us correct ourselves, not only for faults committed voluntarily, but also for those made through ignorance.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
There are passions that are all the more useful the more they lean toward excess, [provided] they are entirely good and subject to reason.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
There are two kinds of excess: one which, by changing the nature of a thing and making it bad from good [...]; the other which only increases its measure, and only makes the good better.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
When thinking only of ourselves, we cannot help but consider our free will to be independent.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
When we think of the infinite power of God, we cannot help but believe that all things depend on Him, and, consequently, that our free will is not exempt from it.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
The knowledge of God's existence should not prevent us from being assured of our free will, because we experience and feel it within ourselves.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
The independence we experience [...] is not incompatible with a dependence of another nature.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
By natural reason alone, we can indeed make many conjectures to our advantage and have fine hopes, but by no means any assurance.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
Natural reason [...] teaches us [...] that we should not leave the certain for the uncertain.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
[Reason] teaches us that we should not truly fear death, but also that we should never seek it.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
It would be necessary for all men to be perfectly wise, so that, knowing what they ought to do, one could be assured of what they will do.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
One ordinarily judges what others will do by what one would want to do if one were in their place.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
It often happens that ordinary minds [...] better penetrate the counsels [of others] [...] than do the more elevated ones, who [...] judge matters quite differently than they do.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
The mood to write verses comes from a strong agitation of the spirits [...] which only disposes one to poetry. [...] I take this transport as a mark of a stronger and more elevated mind than the common.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
Being accustomed to the misfortunes of Fortune, [...] one will not be so surprised, nor so troubled, to learn of the death of a relative, as if one had not received other afflictions before.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
A violent death, properly considered, is more glorious, happier, and sweeter than one awaited in one's bed.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
It is a great glory to die on an occasion which causes one to be universally lamented, praised, and regretted by all who have some human feeling.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
It is certain that, without this ordeal, clemency and other virtues [...] would never have been so noticed or so esteemed as they will be in the future by all who read the story.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
The conscience gives more satisfaction, during the last moments of one's life, than indignation [...] causes vexation.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
As for the pain, I do not take it into account at all; for it is so short.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
It is much better to be entirely delivered from a false hope than to be uselessly sustained by it.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
When it is a matter of the restitution of a State [...], those who have only equity on their side must never expect to obtain all their claims.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
One has much more reason to be grateful to those who let you have some part back, however small, than to wish ill on those who keep the rest.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
Prudence obliges one to show contentment, even if one is not; and to thank not only those who give something back, but also those who do not take everything.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
There is still a long way to go from promises to effect.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
That which particularly afflicts common men, should serve as a consolation [to a stronger mind].
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
There is no place in the world, however harsh or inconvenient, where I would not consider myself happy to spend my days, if [a dear person] were there, and I were able to render them some service.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
Sorrows [...] are all the more difficult to overcome as, often, true reason does not command that we oppose them directly and try to chase them away.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
They are domestic enemies, with whom being forced to converse, one is obliged to be constantly on guard, in order to prevent them from causing harm.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
[The only] remedy [...] is to divert one's imagination and senses as much as possible, and to use only the understanding to consider them.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
A person who might have an infinity of real causes for displeasure, but who would strive [...] to turn their imagination away from them, never thinking of them, except when the necessity of affairs would oblige it...
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
...to employ all the rest of one's time in considering only objects that can bring contentment and joy.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
[It is] greatly useful [...] for judging things more soundly [...], because one looks at them without passion.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
One must entirely deliver the mind from all sorts of sad thoughts, and even also from all sorts of serious meditations concerning the sciences.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
...to occupy oneself only with imitating those who, in looking at the greenness of a wood, the colors of a flower, the flight of a bird [...] persuade themselves that they are thinking of nothing.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
Which is not to waste time, but to use it well.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
...perfect health [...] is the foundation of all other goods one can have in this life.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
...it is not so much the theory, as the practice, that is difficult in this matter.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
[One must have] the inclination [...] to look at things that present themselves from the angle that can make them the most agreeable.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
[One must] make it so that the principal contentment depends only on oneself.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
I have always remained firm in the resolution [...] to accept nothing as true which did not seem to me clearer and more certain than [...] the demonstrations of the geometers.
1637
Source: Discourse on the Method (Cousin ed.)
I have noticed certain laws which God has so established in nature [...] that after sufficient reflection we cannot doubt that they are exactly observed.
1637
Source: Discourse on the Method (Cousin ed.)
I resolved to leave this world to their disputes, and to speak only of what would happen in a new one, if God were now to create somewhere [...] enough matter to compose it.
1637
Source: Discourse on the Method (Cousin ed.)
Their nature is much easier to conceive when we see them gradually come into being in this way, than when we consider them only as already made.
1637
Source: Discourse on the Method (Cousin ed.)
This movement [...] follows as necessarily from the disposition of the organs alone [...] as does that of a clock from the force, situation, and shape of its counterweights and wheels.
1637
Source: Discourse on the Method (Cousin ed.)
The course [of the blood] is nothing other than a perpetual circulation.
1637
Source: Discourse on the Method (Cousin ed.)
We will consider this body as a machine, which, having been made by the hands of God, is incomparably better ordered [...] than any of those that can be invented by men.
1637
Source: Discourse on the Method (Cousin ed.)
If there were such machines which had the likeness of our bodies [...] we would still have two very certain means of recognizing that they were not [...] true men.
1637
Source: Discourse on the Method (Cousin ed.)
A machine could never use words [...] to respond to the meaning of all that is said in its presence, as even the most stupid men can do.
1637
Source: Discourse on the Method (Cousin ed.)
Reason is a universal instrument which can be used in all sorts of situations, [whereas a machine's organs] need a particular disposition for each particular action.
1637
Source: Discourse on the Method (Cousin ed.)
There are no men so dull and so stupid [...] that they are incapable of arranging various words together and composing a discourse from them by which they make their thoughts understood.
1637
Source: Discourse on the Method (Cousin ed.)
This proves not only that the brutes have less reason than men, but that they have none at all.
1637
Source: Discourse on the Method (Cousin ed.)
What [animals] do better than us does not prove that they have a mind [...]; but rather that they have none, and that it is nature which acts in them according to the disposition of their organs.
1637
Source: Discourse on the Method (Cousin ed.)
The rational soul [...] cannot in any way be derived from the power of matter [...], but must be specially created.
1637
Source: Discourse on the Method (Cousin ed.)
It is not enough for the soul to be lodged in the human body, like a pilot in his ship, [...] but it must be more closely joined and united with it, to [...] compose a true man.
1637
Source: Discourse on the Method (Cousin ed.)
One has great reason to take time to deliberate before undertaking things of importance.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
When a matter is begun, and the main point is agreed upon, I see no profit in seeking delays.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
I am persuaded that resolution and promptness are very necessary virtues for affairs already begun.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
It happens much more often, when the affair one undertakes is very good, that it slips away while one defers its execution.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
All the small advantages that might be gained [...] are not worth as much as the harm caused by the distaste these delays usually create.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
If [the affair] does not succeed, all this only serves to let the world know that one has had plans that have failed.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
One has no reason to fear what one does not know.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
Often the things one has most feared before knowing them turn out to be better than those one has desired.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
The best thing in this is to trust in divine providence, and to let oneself be guided by it.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
[There is] a certain languor which sometimes prevents us from carrying out things that have been approved by our judgment.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
The invention of all these machines is founded on a single principle, which is that the same force that can lift a weight [...] of one hundred pounds to a height of two feet, can also lift one of two hundred pounds to a height of one foot [...].
1637
Source: Treatise on Mechanics
[...] the effect must always be proportional to the action that is necessary to produce it [...].
1637
Source: Treatise on Mechanics
There is, however, one thing that prevents this calculation from being exact, namely the weight of the pulley and the difficulty one may have in making the rope slide [...].
1637
Source: Treatise on Mechanics
[...] it is not the pulley that causes this force, but only the movement of the rope which is double that of the weight [...].
1637
Source: Treatise on Mechanics
It should also be noted that it always takes a little more force to lift a weight than to support it [...].
1637
Source: Treatise on Mechanics
[...] by multiplying the pulleys, one can raise the greatest loads with the smallest forces.
1637
Source: Treatise on Mechanics
When one knows the power of the wheel-and-axle and the inclined plane, that of the screw is easy to know [...]; for it is composed only of a very inclined plane that turns around a cylinder.
1637
Source: Treatise on Mechanics
[...] a single man will be able to press as hard with this screw as a hundred could do without it, provided only that one subtracts the force required to turn it.
1637
Source: Treatise on Mechanics
[The] difficulty [...] is not properly caused by the weight of the load, but by the form or the material of the instrument [...], inasmuch as it has more force.
1637
Source: Treatise on Mechanics
I have deferred speaking of the lever until the end, because it is the most difficult machine [...] of all to explain.
1637
Source: Treatise on Mechanics
[To] measure exactly what this force must be [...], one must know that it acts in the same way as if it were dragging the weight on a circularly inclined plane [...].
1637
Source: Treatise on Mechanics
One can [...] show that when [a balance] is assumed to be very exact [...], if its arms are tilted [...], the one that is lower must always be found to be heavier than the other [...].
1637
Source: Treatise on Mechanics
It would be useful for those who engage in inventing new machines if they knew nothing more of this matter than what I have just written about it [...].
1637
Source: Treatise on Mechanics
[...] they would not be in danger of being mistaken in their calculations, as they often are when they assume other principles.
1637
Source: Treatise on Mechanics
As for drugs, whether from Apothecaries or from Empirics, I hold them in such low esteem that I would never dare advise anyone to use them.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
It is to be feared [...] that the humors [...] arrested by the cold of the season, might in spring bring back the same illness [...] if you do not remedy it with a good diet.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
[One must have] a good diet, using only foods and drinks that refresh the blood, and which purge without any effort.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
I do not think [a book] is worth the trouble of reading.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
[This book] contains nothing [...] but my assertions put in a bad order and without their true proofs, so that they appear paradoxical.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
[In this book,] what is put at the beginning can only be proved by what is towards the end.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
He did not understand what he was writing, for he omitted the main point [...].
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
[...] a figure that clearly shows his ignorance.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
He blindly follows what he believes to be my opinions [...] even though he does not understand them; thus he blindly contradicts them [...].
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
I had asked him to write nothing of it, [...] for I was sure that he could write nothing about it that was not bad.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
Having no intention of pleasing me in this, he no longer cared about displeasing me in other things as well.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
[One] has written nothing that is not taken from me, and which is not with that against me, whereas the other has written nothing that is properly mine [...] and yet there is nothing that is not for me, in that he has followed the same principles.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
Your kindness appears not only in showing and correcting the flaws in my reasoning, [...] but also in trying to console me [...] with false praise.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
[...] the consideration of my imperfections has become so familiar that it no longer gives me more emotion than is necessary for the desire to rid myself of them.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
This makes me confess, without shame, to have found in myself all the causes of error that you point out.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
The life I am forced to lead does not leave me the disposition of enough time to acquire a habit of meditation according to your rules.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
Sometimes the interests of my house, [...] sometimes conversations and civilities, which I cannot avoid, so overwhelm my weak spirit [...] that it renders itself, for a long time after, useless for anything else.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
I cannot understand the idea by which we are to judge how the soul (non-extended and immaterial) can move the body.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
Since no material cause presented itself to the senses, one would have attributed it to its opposite, the immaterial.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
The immaterial, I have never been able to conceive of it as anything but a negation of matter, which can have no communication with it.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
I confess that it would be easier for me to concede matter and extension to the soul, than the capacity to move a body and be moved by it, to an immaterial being.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
It is [...] very difficult to understand how a soul, [...] after having had the faculty and the habit of reasoning well, can lose all of that because of some vapors.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
[It is difficult to understand] that the soul, being able to subsist without the body and having nothing in common with it, is so governed by it.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
I entertain these feelings only as friends whom I do not believe I shall keep.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
Good sense is the best distributed thing in the world; for everyone thinks himself so well endowed with it that [...] they are not in the habit of desiring more of it than they have.
1637
Source: Discourse on the Method (Cousin ed.)
The diversity of our opinions does not arise from some being more reasonable than others, but solely from the fact that we conduct our thoughts along different paths, and do not consider the same things.
1637
Source: Discourse on the Method (Cousin ed.)
For it is not enough to have a good mind; the main thing is to apply it well.
1637
Source: Discourse on the Method (Cousin ed.)
The greatest souls are capable of the greatest vices as well as of the greatest virtues.
1637
Source: Discourse on the Method (Cousin ed.)
Those who walk only very slowly can advance much further, if they always follow the right path, than those who run and stray from it.
1637
Source: Discourse on the Method (Cousin ed.)
I know how subject we are to be mistaken in what touches us, and also how much the judgments of our friends ought to be suspected when they are in our favor.
1637
Source: Discourse on the Method (Cousin ed.)
It seemed to me that I had gained no other profit from my attempts to learn, except to discover more and more my own ignorance.
1637
Source: Discourse on the Method (Cousin ed.)
The reading of all good books is like a conversation with the finest people of past centuries who were their authors.
1637
Source: Discourse on the Method (Cousin ed.)
It is good to know something of the customs of various peoples, in order to judge our own more sanely, and so that we do not think that everything that is contrary to our fashions is ridiculous and against reason [...].
1637
Source: Discourse on the Method (Cousin ed.)
When one spends too much time traveling, one becomes a stranger in one's own country; and when one is too curious about things that were practiced in past centuries, one remains [...] very ignorant of those practiced in this one.
1637
Source: Discourse on the Method (Cousin ed.)
Those who have the strongest reasoning [...] can always best persuade what they propose, even if they only spoke Low-Breton.
1637
Source: Discourse on the Method (Cousin ed.)
Considering how many diverse opinions there can be on the same subject, [...] while it is impossible for more than one to be true, I held as almost false everything that was merely probable.
1637
Source: Discourse on the Method (Cousin ed.)
I resolved to seek no other knowledge than that which could be found in myself, or else in the great book of the world.
1637
Source: Discourse on the Method (Cousin ed.)
I always had an extreme desire to learn to distinguish the true from the false, in order to see clearly in my actions and to walk with confidence in this life.
1637
Source: Discourse on the Method (Cousin ed.)
I learned not to believe anything too firmly of which I had been persuaded only by example and custom.
1637
Source: Discourse on the Method (Cousin ed.)
I am not so accustomed to the favors of fortune as to expect anything extraordinary from it; it is enough for me when it does not send me [...] accidents that would give cause for sadness to the greatest philosopher in the world.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
As for the interests of our house, I have long since abandoned them to destiny, seeing that prudence itself [...] would waste its efforts on them.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
It would require a genius stronger than that of Socrates [...]; for, since it did not save him from imprisonment or death, he has not much reason to boast of it.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
I have observed that the things in which I followed my own impulses have succeeded better for me than those in which I let myself be guided by the counsel of those wiser than I.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
I do not attribute it so much to the felicity of my genius as to the fact that having more affection for what concerns me than anyone else, I have also better examined the ways which might harm or benefit me.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
[...] all the people there are so poor that no one studies or reasons, except to make a living.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
I have had the greatest difficulty in the world keeping myself out of the hands of doctors, so as not to suffer from their ignorance, without even having been ill.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
Feeling [...] so well-disposed [...], I made use of stubbornness, where reason was of no use to me.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
I fear the medicines here all the more because everyone uses chemical extracts, whose effects are swift and dangerous.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
The way that serves to establish [a tyrant], however harsh it may be, always does less harm to the public than a sovereignty contested by arms.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
[...] violence and suspicion are things contrary to my nature.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
This study [...] does not occupy me enough to cause me sorrow.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
I profit more in one hour, for cultivating my reason, than I would in my whole life with other readings.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
But there is no one here reasonable enough to understand them [...].
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
As for me, I will take the safest course [...] and will not make use of it.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
It is [...] by becoming as concrete as possible that geometry has taken on the appearance of extreme abstraction.
17th century
Source: On Science/02
It is by the same act of the mind that Descartes identified geometry, on the one hand with algebra, and on the other with physics.
17th century
Source: On Science/02
It is the same innovation that reduced physics to geometry, and which founded it on comparisons with the phenomena made familiar to us by common experience [...].
17th century
Source: On Science/02
After having based all his physics on motion, [Descartes] seemingly ruins it by positing motion as purely relative.
17th century
Source: On Science/02
There is no contradiction [...] in reducing the imagination to the human body, and in making it, for all that concerns the world, the sole instrument of knowledge.
17th century
Source: On Science/02
Simple ideas [...] express not the world nor the mind, but the passage that the world leaves for the mind.
17th century
Source: On Science/02
God's role with respect to me consists in somehow answering for the union of the soul with the body.
17th century
Source: On Science/02
There is no longer a contradiction between freedom and necessity, between idealism and realism.
17th century
Source: On Science/02
The whole mind is in action in the application of thought to an object.
17th century
Source: On Science/02
It is characteristic of our mind to form general propositions of knowledge from particular ones.
17th century
Source: On Science/02
Science [appears] as uniformly simple, clear, and easy, however far it may extend.
17th century
Source: On Science/02
There is no other order than that which governs the sequence of numbers, and makes one think of a thousand as easily as of two.
17th century
Source: On Science/02
When the mind applies itself to the world [...] it is always the same mind, the same world, the same knowledge.
17th century
Source: On Science/02
Although their assumptions are almost all false and uncertain, nevertheless... [astronomers] do not fail to draw from them several very true and very certain pieces of knowledge.
17th century
Source: On Science/02
What I have written about it is so true & so clear, that I am sure there will be no reasonable man who does not admit it.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
I fear that what I have put [...] may be more doubtful & more obscure.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
Not having yet sufficiently examined the nature [of a subject], I was afraid of doing something contrary to what I might learn hereafter.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
The favor [...] obliges me more than any I could receive from elsewhere.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
[A force] can indeed carry [things] very fast, but not make them collide with other hard bodies; which would be required to break them.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
The virtue [of a thing] does not seem to us as strong in the whole mass [...], as in small [concentrations].
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
I beg [...] to forgive me, if I write nothing here but very confusedly.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
I am on a continuous journey.
1643-1649
Source: Correspondence with Elisabeth
Good sense is the best distributed thing in the world; for everyone thinks himself so well endowed with it, that even those who are the most difficult to please [...] do not usually desire more of it than they have.
1637
Source: Discourse on the Method (Cousin ed.)
For to be possessed of a good mind is not enough; the prime requisite is to apply it well.
1637
Source: Discourse on the Method (Cousin ed.)
The reading of all good books is like a conversation with the finest people of past centuries.
1637
Source: Discourse on the Method (Cousin ed.)
I learned not to believe anything too firmly of which I had been persuaded only by example and custom.
1637
Source: Discourse on the Method (Cousin ed.)
Like a man who walks alone and in the dark, I resolved to go so slowly [...] that if I did not advance far, I would at least guard myself from falling.
1637
Source: Discourse on the Method (Cousin ed.)
The first [precept] was never to accept anything for true which I did not clearly know to be such.
1637
Source: Discourse on the Method (Cousin ed.)
The second, to divide each of the difficulties under examination into as many parts as possible [...] for its adequate solution.
1637
Source: Discourse on the Method (Cousin ed.)
To try always to conquer myself rather than fortune, and to change my desires rather than the order of the world.
1637
Source: Discourse on the Method (Cousin ed.)
There is nothing entirely in our power except our thoughts.
1637
Source: Discourse on the Method (Cousin ed.)
It is sufficient to judge well to do well, and to judge as well as we can to do our best.
1637
Source: Discourse on the Method (Cousin ed.)
I think, therefore I am.
1637
Source: Discourse on the Method (Cousin ed.)
From this I knew I was a substance whose whole essence or nature is simply to think.
1637
Source: Discourse on the Method (Cousin ed.)
Reason is a universal instrument which can be used in all kinds of situations.
1637
Source: Discourse on the Method (Cousin ed.)
There are no men so dull and stupid [...] that they cannot arrange different words together, and compose a discourse by which to make their thoughts understood.
1637
Source: Discourse on the Method (Cousin ed.)
Instead of that speculative philosophy [...], one can find a practical one, by which [...] we might [...] make ourselves, as it were, the masters and possessors of nature.
1637
Source: Discourse on the Method (Cousin ed.)
The path I take [...] is so little trodden, and so far from the ordinary route, that I did not think it useful to show it to everyone, for fear that weaker minds might believe they were permitted to attempt this way.
1641
Source: Meditations on First Philosophy
It does not follow from the fact that the human mind [...] knows itself to be nothing other than a thinking thing, that its nature or its essence is only to think.
1641
Source: Meditations on First Philosophy
I knew nothing that I knew to belong to my essence, except that I was a thing that thinks, or a thing that has in itself the faculty of thinking.
1641
Source: Meditations on First Philosophy
From the mere fact that I have in me the idea of a thing more perfect than I am, it follows that this thing truly exists.
1641
Source: Meditations on First Philosophy
The judgments of many are so weak [...] that they are much more often persuaded by first opinions [...] than by a solid and true [...] refutation.
1641
Source: Meditations on First Philosophy
We attribute to our minds so much strength and wisdom that we have the presumption to want to determine and understand what God can and must do.
1641
Source: Meditations on First Philosophy
We must consider our minds as finite and limited things, and God as an infinite and incomprehensible being.
1641
Source: Meditations on First Philosophy
I undertake to lay the foundations of the first philosophy, but without expecting any praise from the common people, nor hoping that my book will be seen by many.
1641
Source: Meditations on First Philosophy
I would never advise anyone to read [me], except those who would wish to [...] meditate seriously, and who can detach their minds from the commerce of the senses and [...] from all sorts of prejudices.
1641
Source: Meditations on First Philosophy
Those who, without caring for the order and connection of the reasons, will amuse themselves by quibbling over each of the parts [...] will not profit much from the reading.
1641
Source: Meditations on First Philosophy
I do not presume so much of myself as to believe I can foresee all that may cause difficulty for each person.
1641
Source: Meditations on First Philosophy
I will set forth [...] the thoughts by which I am persuaded I have arrived at a [...] knowledge of the truth, in order to see if, by the same reasons that have persuaded me, I can also persuade others.
1641
Source: Meditations on First Philosophy
I beg those who wish to read these Meditations not to form any judgment on them until they have first taken the trouble to read all these objections and the replies.
1641
Source: Meditations on First Philosophy