Friday Intensives
His best known philosophical statement is “Cogito ergo sum” (I think, therefore I am). His most famous works include Meditations on First Philosophy, Principles of Philosophy, Discourse on the Method, Passions of the Soul and mathematical works such as Cartesian coordinate system.
I have collected some of the most famous Rene Descartes quotes below. All Rene Descartes quotes are full of wisdom and inspiration. Most of his famous ideas can be learned in short by reading Rene Descartes quotes listed below.
“Cogito ergo sum. (I think, therefore I am.)” ― René Descartes
“Conquer yourself rather than the world.” ― René Descartes
“Doubt is the origin of wisdom.” ― René Descartes
“There is nothing more ancient than the truth.” ― René Descartes
“The first precept was never to accept a thing as true until I knew it as such without a single doubt.” ― Rene Descartes quotes
“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.” ― René Descartes
“It is not enough to have a good mind; the main thing is to use it well.” ― René Descartes
“The reading of all good books is like conversation with the finest men of past centuries.” ― Rene Descartes quotes
“Except our own thoughts, there is nothing absolutely in our power.” ― René Descartes
“Common sense is the most widely shared commodity in the world, for every man is convinced that he is well supplied with it.” ― René Descartes
“To know what people really think, pay attention to what they do, rather than what they say.” ― René Descartes
“The greatest minds are capable of the greatest vices as well as of the greatest virtues.” ― René Descartes
“But in my opinion, all things in nature occur mathematically.” ― René Descartes
“With me, everything turns into mathematics.” ― René Descartes
“You just keep pushing. You just keep pushing. I made every mistake that could be made. But I just kept pushing.” ― Rene Descartes quotes
“Thus, all Philosophy is like a tree, of which Metaphysics is the root, Physics the trunk, and all the other sciences the branches that grow out of this trunk, which are reduced to three principals, namely, Medicine, Mechanics, and Ethics. By the science of Morals, I understand the highest and most perfect which, presupposing an entire knowledge of the other sciences, is the last degree of wisdom.” ― René Descartes
“I suppose therefore that all things I see are illusions; I believe that nothing has ever existed of everything my lying memory tells me. I think I have no senses. I believe that body, shape, extension, motion, location are functions. What is there then that can be taken as true? Perhaps only this one thing, that nothing at all is certain.” ― Rene Descartes quotes
“He who hid well, lived well.” ― René Descartes
“I desire to live in peace and to continue the life I have begun under the motto ‘to live well you must live unseen” ― René Descartes
“Each problem that I solved became a rule which served afterwards to solve other problems” ― René Descartes
“I had become aware, as early as my college days, that no opinion, however absurd and incredible can be imagined, that has not been held by one of the philosophers.” ― René Descartes
“I am not a collection of members which we call the human body: I am not a subtle air distributed through these members, I am not a wind, a fire, a vapour, a breath, nor anything at all which I can imagine or conceive; because I have assumed that all these were nothing. Without changing that supposition I find that I only leave myself certain of the fact that I am somewhat.” ― René Descartes
“So blind is the curiosity by which mortals are possessed, that they often conduct their minds along unexplored routes, having no reason to hope for success, but merely being willing to risk the experiment of finding whether the truth they seek lies there.” ― René Descartes
“They do everything in their power to make fortune favor them in this life, but nevertheless they think so little of it, in relation to eternity, that they view the events of the world as we do those of a play.” ― René Descartes
“It is useful to know something of the manners of different nations, that we may be enabled to form a more correct judgment regarding our own, and be prevented from thinking that everything contrary to our customs is ridiculous and irrational, a conclusion usually come to by those whose experience has been limited to their own country.” ― Rene Descartes quotes
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