He is considered the first modern philosopher. His contributions extend to mathematics and physics. He made an important connection between geometry and algebra, which allowed for the solving of geometrical problems by way of algebraic equations. He is also famous for having promoted a new conception of matter, which allowed for the accounting of physical phenomena by way of mechanical explanations.
This entry focuses on his philosophical contributions in the theory of knowledge, especially in his famous “Meditations on First Philosophy”
(1596 – 1650)
Rene Descartes Quotes
Whenever anyone has offended me, I try to raise my soul so high that the offense cannot reach it.
~ Rene Descartes
I am accustomed to sleep and in my dreams to imagine the same things that lunatics imagine when awake.
~ Rene Descartes
Except our own thoughts, there is nothing absolutely in our power.
~ Rene Descartes
When it is not in our power to follow what is true, we ought to follow what is most probable.
~ Rene Descartes
Each problem that I solved became a rule, which served afterwards to solve other problems.
~ Rene Descartes
Travelling is almost like talking with those of other centuries.
~ Rene Descartes
Common sense is the most fairly distributed thing in the world, for each one thinks he is so well-endowed with it that even those who are hardest to satisfy in all other matters are not in the habit of desiring more of it than they already have.
~ Rene Descartes
Everything is self-evident.
~ Rene Descartes
A state is better governed which has few laws, and those laws strictly observed.
~ Rene Descartes
There is nothing so strange and so unbelievable that it has not been said by one philosopher or another.
~ Rene Descartes
I am indeed amazed when I consider how weak my mind is and how prone to error.
~ Rene Descartes
It is not enough to have a good mind; the main thing is to use it well.
~ Rene Descartes
There is a difference between happiness, the supreme good, and the final end or goal toward which our actions ought to tend. For happiness is not the supreme good, but presupposes it, being the contentment or satisfaction of the mind which results from possessing it.
~ Rene Descartes
One cannot conceive anything so strange and so implausible that it has not already been said by one philosopher or another.
~ Rene Descartes
I hope that posterity will judge me kindly, not only as to the things which I have explained, but also to those which I have intentionally omitted so as to leave to others the pleasure of discovery.
~ Rene Descartes
Nothing is more fairly distributed than common sense: no one thinks he needs more of it than he already has.
~ Rene Descartes
The two operations of our understanding, intuition and deduction, on which alone we have said we must rely in the acquisition of knowledge.
~ Rene Descartes
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.
~ Rene Descartes
An optimist may see a light where there is none, but why must the pessimist always run to blow it out?
~ Rene Descartes
The reading of all good books is like a conversation with the finest minds of past centuries.
~ Rene Descartes
Illusory joy is often worth more than genuine sorrow.
~ Rene Descartes
The greatest minds are capable of the greatest vices as well as of the greatest virtues.
~ Rene Descartes
It is only prudent never to place complete confidence in that by which we have even once been deceived.
~ Rene Descartes
Perfect numbers like perfect men are very rare.
~ Rene Descartes
The first precept was never to accept a thing as true until I knew it as such without a single doubt.
~ Rene Descartes
Perfect numbers like perfect men are very rare.
~ Rene Descartes
Divide each difficulty into as many parts as is feasible and necessary to resolve it.
~ Rene Descartes
The senses deceive from time to time, and it is prudent never to trust wholly those who have deceived us even once.
~ Rene Descartes
In order to improve the mind, we ought less to learn, than to contemplate.
~ Rene Descartes
