224 Quotes by Rene Descartes

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

The chief cause of human errors is to be found in the prejudices picked up in childhood.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

We do not describe the world we see, we see the world we can describe.