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For I found myself embarrassed with so many doubts and errors that it seemed to me that the effort to instruct myself had no effect other than th eincreasing discovery of my own ignorance

Rene Descartes

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Rene Descartes
Age: 53 †
Born: 1596
Born: March 31
Died: 1650
Died: February 11
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La Haye en Touraine
Descartes
Cartesius
Renatus Cartesius
Many
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Found
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Your joy is your sorrow unmasked. And the self-same well from which your laughter rises was often-times filled with your tears.
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How can you be certain that your whole life is not a dream?
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A state is better governed which has few laws, and those laws strictly observed.
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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.
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Divide each difficulty at hand into as many pieces as possible and as could be required to better solve them.
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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.
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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.
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Except our own thoughts, there is nothing absolutely in our power.
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It is not enough to have a good mind. The main thing is to use it well.
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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?
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It is contrary to reasoning to say that there is a vacuum or space in which there is absolutely nothing.
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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.
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God alone is the author of all the motions in the world.
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How do we know that anything really exists, that anything is really the way it seems ot us through our senses?
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Few look for truth many prowl about for a reputation of profundity by arrogantly challenging whichever arguments are the best.
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Doubt is the origin of wisdom
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I know that I exist the question is, What is this 'I' that 'I' know.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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