110+ Rene Descartes Quotes On Mind, Centuries And Knowledge

Rene Descartes was a French mathematician, philosopher, and writer who lived during the 17th century. He is best known for his philosophical work, which includes the famous phrase "cogito ergo sum" (I think, therefore I am). He is also the founder of analytical geometry, which is a branch of mathematics that links algebra and geometry. Following is our collection on famous quotes by Rene Descartes on mind, centuries, knowledge.

Top 10 Rene Descartes Quotes

1. The reading of all good books is like a conversation with the finest minds of past centuries.
2. Divide each difficulty into as many parts as is feasible and necessary to resolve it.
3. Whenever anyone has offended me, I try to raise my soul so high that the offense cannot reach it.
4. 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.
5. The greatest minds are capable of the greatest vices as well as of the greatest virtues.
6. The chief cause of human errors is to be found in the prejudices picked up in childhood.
7. Doubt is the origin of wisdom
8. It is not enough to have a good mind; the main thing is to use it well.
9. To know what people really think, pay regard to what they do, rather than what they say.
10. Each problem that I solved became a rule, which served afterwards to solve other problems.

Rene Descartes Image Quotes

It is not enough to have a good mind; the main thing is to use it well. — Rene Descartes

The only thing that I know, is that I know nothing — Rene Descartes

Perfect numbers like perfect men are very rare. — Rene Descartes

Illusory joy is often worth more than genuine sorrow. — Rene Descartes

Rene Descartes Short Quotes

• The only thing that I know, is that I know nothing
• Perfect numbers like perfect men are very rare.
• Illusory joy is often worth more than genuine sorrow.
• All is to be doubted.
• Except our own thoughts, there is nothing absolutely in our power.
• Cogito ergo sum. (I think, therefore I am.)
• I think; therefore I am.
• Everything is self-evident.
• When writing about transcendental issues, be transcendentally clear.
• When it is not in our power to follow what is true, we ought to follow what is most probable.

Rene Descartes Quotes About Mind

In order to improve the mind, we ought less to learn, than to contemplate. — Rene Descartes

Intuition is the undoubting conception of a pure and attentive mind, which arises from the light of reason alone, and is more certain than deduction. — Rene Descartes

The mind effortlessly and automatically takes in new ideas, which remain in limbo until verified or rejected by conscious, rational analysis. — Rene Descartes

The greatest minds, as they are capable of the highest excellencies, 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. — Rene Descartes

I am indeed amazed when I consider how weak my mind is and how prone to error. — Rene Descartes

There is a great difference between mind and body insomuch as body is by nature always divisible, and the mind is entirely indivisible. — Rene 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. — Rene Descartes

The entire method consists in the order and arrangement of the things to which the mind's eye must turn so that we can discover some truth. — Rene Descartes

Now therefore, that my mind is free from all cares, and that I have obtained for myself assured leisure in peaceful solitude, I shall apply myself seriously and freely to the general destruction of all my former opinions. — 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

Rene Descartes Quotes About Knowledge

Mathematics is a more powerful instrument of knowledge than any other that has been bequeathed to us by human agency. — Rene Descartes

I was convinced that our beliefs are based much more on custom and example than on any certain knowledge. — Rene Descartes

Intuitive knowledge is an illumination of the soul, whereby it beholds in the light of God those things which it pleases Him to reveal to us by a direct impression of divine clearness. — 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

Neither divine grace nor natural knowledge ever diminishes freedom. — Rene Descartes

Although my knowledge grows more and more, nevertheless I do not for that reason believe that it can ever be actually infinite, since it can never reach a point so high that it will be unable to attain any greater increase. — Rene Descartes

The only secure knowledge is that I exist. — Rene Descartes

If ... it is not in my power to arrive at the knowledge of any truth, I may at least do what is in my power, namely, suspend judgement. — Rene Descartes

We never understand a thing so well,and make it our own, as when we have discovered it for ourselves. — Rene Descartes

I know that I exist; the question is, What is this 'I' that 'I' know. — Rene Descartes

Rene Descartes Quotes About Mathematic

With me, everything turns into mathematics. — Rene Descartes

If I found any new truths in the sciences, I can say that they follow from, or depend on, five or six principal problems which I succeeded in solving and which I regard as so many battles where the fortunes of war were on my side. — Rene Descartes

I concluded that I might take as a general rule the principle that all things which we very clearly and obviously conceive are true: only observing, however, that there is some difficulty in rightly determining the objects which we distinctly conceive. — Rene Descartes

But in my opinion, all things in nature occur mathematically. — Rene Descartes

I accept no principles of physics which are not also accepted in mathematics. — Rene Descartes

Rene Descartes Quotes About Dreams

When I consider this carefully, I find not a single property which with certainty separates the waking state from the dream. How can you be certain that your whole life is not a dream? — Rene Descartes

I am accustomed to sleep and in my dreams to imagine the same things that lunatics imagine when awake. — Rene Descartes

For how do we know that the thoughts which occur in dreaming are false rather than those others which we experience when awake, since the former are often not less vivid and distinct than the latter? — Rene Descartes

Hence reason also demands that, since our thoughts cannot all be true because we are not wholly perfect, what truth they do possess must inevitably be found in the thoughts we have when awake, rather than in our dreams. — Rene Descartes

It is possible that I am dreaming right now and that all of my perceptions are false. — Rene Descartes

How can you be certain that your whole life is not a dream? — Rene Descartes

Even if I were to suppose that I was dreaming and whatever I saw or imagined was false, yet I could not deny that ideas were truly in my mind. — Rene Descartes

Rene Descartes Quotes About Philosophy

I have concluded the evident existence of God, and that my existence depends entirely on God in all the moments of my life, that I do not think that the human spirit may know anything with greater evidence and certitude. — Rene Descartes

There is nothing so strange and so unbelievable that it has not been said by one philosopher or another. — Rene Descartes

Science is practical philosophy. — Rene Descartes

Rene Descartes Quotes About Philosophical

One cannot conceive anything so strange and so implausible that it has not already been said by one philosopher or another. — Rene Descartes

Omnia apud me mathematica fiunt. — Rene Descartes

De omnibus dubitandum — Rene Descartes

To live without philosophizing is in truth the same as keeping the eyes closed without attempting to open them. — Rene Descartes

Rene Descartes Quotes About Distributed

Nothing is more fairly distributed than common sense: no one thinks he needs more of it than he already has. — Rene Descartes

Common sense is the best distributed thing in the world, for we all think we possess a good share of it. — Rene Descartes

Good sense is the most equitably distributed of all things because no matter how much or little a person has, everyone feels so abundantly provided with good sense that he feels no desire for more than he already possesses. — 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

Good sense is, of all things among men, the most equally distributed; for every one thinks himself so abundantly provided with it, that those even who are the most difficult to satisfy in everything else, do not usually desire a larger measure of this quality than they already possess. — Rene Descartes

Rene Descartes Famous Quotes And Sayings

It is not enough to have a good mind; the main thing is to use it well. — Rene Descartes

Situations in life often permit no delay; and when we cannot determine the course which is certainly best, we must follow the one which is probably the best. This frame of mind freed me also from the repentance and remorse commonly felt by those vacillating individuals who are always seeking as worthwhile things which they later judge to be bad. — Rene Descartes

Perfect numbers like perfect men are very rare. — Rene Descartes

Illusory joy is often worth more than genuine sorrow. — 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

I desire to live in peace and to continue the life I have begun under the motto 'to live well you must live unseen — Rene Descartes

It's the familiar love-hate syndrome of seduction: "I don't really care what it is I say, I care only that you like it." — Rene Descartes

Common sense is the most widely shared commodity in the world, for every man is convinced that he is well supplied with it. — Rene 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

And as it is the most generous souls who have most gratitude, it is those who have most pride, and who are most base and infirm, who most allow themselves to be carried away by anger and hatred. — Rene Descartes

There is nothing so far removed from us as to be beyond our reach, or so hidden that we cannot discover it. — Rene Descartes

If I simply refrain from making a judgment in cases where I do not perceive the truth with sufficient clarity and distinctness, then it is clear that I am behaving correctly and avoiding error. — Rene Descartes

Few look for truth; many prowl about for a reputation of profundity by arrogantly challenging whichever arguments are the best. — Rene Descartes

I experienced in myself a certain capacity for judging which I have doubtless received from God, like all the other things that I possess; and as He could not desire to deceive me, it is clear that He has not given me a faculty that will lead me to err if I use it aright. — Rene Descartes

Just as we believe by faith that the greatest happiness of the next life consists simply in the contemplation of this divine majesty, likewise we experience that we derive the greatest joy of which we are capable in this life from the same contemplation, even though it is much less perfect. — Rene Descartes

At last I will devote myself sincerely and without reservation to the general demolition of my opinions. — Rene Descartes

Neither the true nor the false roots are always real; sometimes they are imaginary; that is, while we can always imagine as many roots for each equation as I have assigned, yet there is not always a definite quantity corresponding to each root we have imagined. — Rene Descartes

This result could have been achieved either by his [God] endowing my intellect with a clear and distinct perception of everything about which I would ever deliberate, or simply by impressing the following rule so firmly upon my memory that I could never forget it: I should never judge anything that I do not clearly and distinctly understand. — Rene Descartes

Human wisdom remains always one and the same although applied to the most diverse objects and it is no more changed by their diversity than the sunshine is changed by the variety of objects which it illuminates. — Rene Descartes

Divide each difficulty at hand into as many pieces as possible and as could be required to better solve them. — Rene Descartes

I did not imitate the skeptics who doubt only for doubting's sake, and pretend to be always undecided; on the contrary, my whole intention was to arrive at a certainty, and to dig away the drift and the sand until I reached the rock or the clay beneath. — Rene Descartes

There is a little gland in the brain in which the soul exercises its functions in a more particular way than in the other parts. — Rene Descartes

Your joy is your sorrow unmasked. And the self-same well from which your laughter rises was often-times filled with your tears. — Rene Descartes

The rainbow is such a remarkable phenomenon of nature, and its cause has been so meticulously sought after by inquiring minds throughout the ages, that I could not choose a more appropriate subject for demonstrating how, with the method I am using, we can arrive at knowledge not possessed at all by those whose writings are available to us. — Rene Descartes

[About Pierre de Fermat] It cannot be denied that he has had many exceptional ideas, and that he is a highly intelligent man. For my part, however, I have always been taught to take a broad overview of things, in order to be able to deduce from them general rules, which might be applicable elsewhere. — Rene Descartes

In the matter of a difficult question it is more likely that the truth should have been discovered by the few than by the many. — Rene Descartes

And I shall always hold myself more obliged to those by whose favour I enjoy uninterrupted leisure than to any who might offer me the most honourable positions in the world. — Rene Descartes

Because reason...is the only thing that makes us men, and distinguishes us from the beasts, I would prefer to believe that it exists, in its entirety, in each of us. — Rene Descartes

Even those who have the weakest souls could acquire absolute mastery over all their passions if we employed sufficient ingenuity in training and guiding them. — Rene Descartes

The principal use of prudence, of self-control, is that it teaches us to be masters of our passions, and to so control and guide them that the evils which they cause are quite bearable, and that we even derive joy from them all. — Rene Descartes

I am thing that thinks: that is, a things that doubts,affirms, denies, understands a few things, is ignorant of many things, is willing, is unwilling, and also which imagines and has sensory perceptions. — Rene Descartes

Whatever I have up till now accepted as most true and assured I have gotten either from the senses or through the senses. But from time to time I have found that the senses deceive, and it is prudent never to trust completely those who have deceived us even once. — 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

The nature of matter, or body considered in general, consists not in its being something which is hard or heavy or coloured, or which affects the senses in any way, but simply in its being something which is extended in length, breadth and depth. — Rene Descartes

A person has two passions for love and abhorrence. A big disposition to excessiveness has just a love, because it is more ardent and stronger. — Rene Descartes

Archimedes, that he might transport the entire globe ... demanded only a point that was firm and immovable; so also, I shall be entitled to entertain the highest expectations, if I am fortunate enough to discover only one thing that is certain and indubitable. — Rene Descartes

We call infinite that thing whose limits we have not perceived, and so by that word we do not signify what we understand about a thing, but rather what we do not understand. — Rene Descartes

It is contrary to reasoning to say that there is a vacuum or space in which there is absolutely nothing. — Rene Descartes

The reading of all good books is indeed like a conversation with the noblest men of past centuries who were the authors of them, nay a carefully studied conversation, in which they reveal to us none but the best of their thoughts. — Rene Descartes

But possibly I am something more than I suppose myself to be. — Rene Descartes

By 'God', I understand, a substance which is infinite, independent, supremely intelligent, supremely powerful, and which created both myself and everything else [...] that exists. All these attributes are such that, the more carefully I concentrate on them, the less possible it seems that they could have originated from me alone. So, from what has been said it must be concluded that God necessarily exists. — Rene Descartes

On the one hand I have a clear and distinct idea of myself, in so far as I am a thinking, non-extended thing; and on the other hand I have a distinct idea of body, in so far a this is simply an extended, non-thinking thing. And, accordingly, it is certain that I am really distinct from my body, and exist without it. — Rene Descartes

But I cannot forget that, at other times I have been deceived in sleep by similar illusions; and, attentively considering those cases, I perceive so clearly that there exist no certain marks by which the state of waking can ever be distinguished from sleep, that I feel greatly astonished; and in amazement I almost persuade myself that I am now dreaming. — Rene Descartes

Give me extension and motion and I will construct the universe. — Rene Descartes

Reason is nothing without imagination. — Rene Descartes

I am thinking, therefore I exist. (...) I was a substance whose whole essence or nature is solely to think, and which does not require any place, or depend on any material thing, in order to exist. Accordingly this 'I' - that is, the soul by which I am what I am - is entirely distinct from the body, and indeed is easier to know than the body, and would not fail to be whatever it is, even if the body did not exist. — Rene Descartes

Desire awakens only to things that are thought possible. — Rene Descartes

For each of us there is a set limit to our intellectual powers which we cannot pass. — Rene Descartes

The object of music is a Sound. The end; to delight, and move various Affections in us. — Rene Descartes

The only thing we have power over in the universe is our own thoughts. — Rene Descartes

For to be possessed of a vigorous mind is not enough; the prime requisite is rightly to apply it. — Rene Descartes

Everybody thinks himself so well supplied with common sense that even those most difficult to please. . . never desire more of it than they already have. — Rene Descartes

Here I beg you to observe in passing that the scruples that prevented ancient writers from using arithmetical terms in geometry, and which can only be a consequence of their inability to perceive clearly the relation between these two subjects, introduced much obscurity and confusion into their explanations. — Rene Descartes

I should consider that I know nothing about physics if I were able to explain only how things might be, and were unable to demonstrate that they could not be otherwise. — Rene Descartes

It must not be thought that it is ever possible to reach the interior earth by any perseverance in mining: both because the exterior earth is too thick, in comparison with human strength; and especially because of the intermediate waters, which would gush forth with greater impetus, the deeper the place in which their veins were first opened; and which would drown all miners. — Rene Descartes

Nothing comes out of nothing. — 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

How do we know that anything really exists, that anything is really the way it seems ot us through our senses? — Rene Descartes

Be that as it may, there is fixed in my mind a certain opinion of long standing, namely that there exists a God who is able to do anything and by whom I, such as I am, have been created. How do I know that he did not bring it about that there is no earth at all, no heavens, no extended thing, no shape, no size, no place, and yet bringing it about that all these things appear to me to exist precisely as they do now? — Rene Descartes

Life Lessons by Rene Descartes

1. Rene Descartes taught us to think for ourselves and question what we are told, encouraging us to use reason and logic to find our own truth.
2. He also showed us the importance of perseverance and hard work, as he spent years on his own research and experiments to uncover the secrets of the universe.
3. Finally, Descartes believed in the power of self-reflection and introspection, and encouraged us to take time to reflect on our lives and our beliefs.