Rene Descartes Quotes

On this page you can find the TOP of Rene Descartes's best quotes! We hope you will find some sayings from Philosopher Rene Descartes's in our collection, which will inspire you to new achievements! There are currently 156 quotes on this page collected since March 31, 1596! Share our collection of quotes with your friends on social media so that they can find something to inspire them!
  • 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.

    Real   Roots   Ontology  
  • For to be possessed of a vigorous mind is not enough; the prime requisite is rightly to apply it.

    Rene Descartes (2013). “Discourse on the Method: Discourse On the Method of Rightly Conducting the Reason, and Seeking Truth In the Sciences (Beloved Books Edition)”, p.6, Lulu Press, Inc
  • 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.

    Differences   Goal   Mind  
  • 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.

  • Wonder is the first of all the passions.

    Passion   Magic   Firsts  
    Rene Descartes (1989). “Passions of the Soul”, p.52, Hackett Publishing
  • Everything is self-evident.

    Reality   Self   Evident  
  • 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, Elizabeth Sanderson Haldane, G. R. T. Ross (2003). “Discourse on Method and Meditations”, p.89, Courier Corporation
  • At last I will devote myself sincerely and without reservation to the general demolition of my opinions.

  • Doubt is the origin of wisdom

    Doubt   Aries   Thrive  
  • Science is practical philosophy.

  • Conquer yourself rather than the world.

    World   Conquer  
  • The greatest minds are capable of the greatest vices as well as of the greatest virtues.

    Book   Inspiration   Beer  
    Rene Descartes, Elizabeth Sanderson Haldane, G. R. T. Ross (2003). “Discourse on Method and Meditations”, p.4, Courier Corporation
  • So far, I have been a spectator in this theater which is the world, but I am now about to mount the stage, and I come forward masked.

    World   Theater   Stage  
  • I am indeed amazed when I consider how weak my mind is and how prone to error.

    Errors   Mind   Weak  
  • Instead I ought to be grateful to Him who never owed me anything for having been so generous to me, rather than think that He deprived me of those things or has taken away from me whatever He did not give me.

  • But possibly I am something more than I suppose myself to be.

    RENE DESCARTES (1952). “RULES FOR THE DIRECTION OF THE MIND DISCOURSE ON THE METHOD MEDITATIONS ON FIRST PHILOSOPHY OBJECTIONS AGAINST THE MEDITATIONS AND REPLIES THE GEOMETRY”
  • 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.

    Ontology   Limits   Logic  
  • We never understand a thing so well,and make it our own, as when we have discovered it for ourselves.

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

    Attributed to Rene Descartes in Ian Glynn "An Anatomy of Thought: The Origin and Machinery of the Mind" (p. 7), 2003.
  • Nothing is more fairly distributed than common sense: no one thinks he needs more of it than he already has.

    "Discourse on the Method". Treatise by René Descartes, Pt. 1, 1637.
  • 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.

    Men   Thinking   Desire  
    Rene Descartes (2008). “Discourse on the Method and the Meditations”, p.11, Cosimo, Inc.
  • For each of us there is a set limit to our intellectual powers which we cannot pass.

  • ...it is certain that I am really distinct from my body, and can exist without it.

    Rene Descartes (1999). “Discourse on Method and Meditations on First Philosophy”, p.96, Hackett Publishing
  • 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.

    Believe   Perfect   Joy  
  • 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.

    Science   Might   Able  
  • I know that I exist; the question is, What is this 'I' that 'I' know.

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

  • Some years ago I was struck by the large number of falsehoods that I had accepted as true in my childhood, and by the highly doubtful nature of the whole edifice that I had subsequently based on them. I realized that it was necessary, once in the course of my life, to demolish everything completely and start again right from the foundations if I wanted to establish anything at all in the sciences that was stable and likely to last.

    Meditationes "Meditation I" (1641)
  • Mathematics is a more powerful instrument of knowledge than any other that has been bequeathed to us by human agency.

    RENE DESCARTES (1952). “RULES FOR THE DIRECTION OF THE MIND DISCOURSE ON THE METHOD MEDITATIONS ON FIRST PHILOSOPHY OBJECTIONS AGAINST THE MEDITATIONS AND REPLIES THE GEOMETRY”
  • Common sense is the best distributed thing in the world, for we all think we possess a good share of it.

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We hope you have found the saying you were looking for in our collection! At the moment, we have collected 156 quotes from the Philosopher Rene Descartes, starting from March 31, 1596! We periodically replenish our collection so that visitors of our website can always find inspirational quotes by authors from all over the world! Come back to us again!