Sensations are nothing but confused modes of thinking. Rene Descartes More Quotes by Rene Descartes More Quotes From Rene Descartes 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 ontologydreamlove 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. Rene Descartes stagetheaterworld My third maxim was to try always to conquer myself rather than fortune, and to change my desires rather than the order of the world, and generally to accustom myself to believing that there is nothing entirely in our power except our thoughts, so that after we have done our best regarding things external to us, everything in which we do not succeed is for us absolutely impossible. Rene Descartes changepowerbelieve I was convinced that our beliefs are based much more on custom and example than on any certain knowledge. Rene Descartes atheismexamplebelief The first precept was never to accept a thing as true until I knew it as such without a single doubt. Rene Descartes philosophicaldoubtfirsts Few look for truth; many prowl about for a reputation of profundity by arrogantly challenging whichever arguments are the best. Rene Descartes reputationchallengeslooks 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 judgmentjudgementmay Every man is indeed bound to do what he can to promote the good of others, and a man who is of no use to anyone is strictly worthless. Rene Descartes usemenlife Everything is self-evident. Rene Descartes evidentselfreality 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 wakingdreamsleep There is nothing so far removed from us as to be beyond our reach, or so hidden that we cannot discover it. Rene Descartes persistencespacediscovery The mind effortlessly and automatically takes in new ideas, which remain in limbo until verified or rejected by conscious, rational analysis. Rene Descartes analysismindideas 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 prudentdeceived-usdeceiving 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 differencesbodymind I am accustomed to sleep and in my dreams to imagine the same things that lunatics imagine when awake. Rene Descartes awake-at-nightdreamsleep At last I will devote myself sincerely and without reservation to the general demolition of my opinions. Rene Descartes demolitionopinionlasts What then is the source of my errors? They are owing simply to the fact that, since the will extends further than the intellect, I do not contain the will within the same boundaries; rather, I also extend it to things I do not understand. Because the will is indifferent in regard to such matters, it easily turns away from the true and the good; and in this way I am deceived and I sin. Rene Descartes owingerrorsmatter Divide each difficulty at hand into as many pieces as possible and as could be required to better solve them. Rene Descartes difficultypieceshands 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 ontologylogiclimits 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 common-sensedesirethinking
