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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
Astronomer
Correspondent
Mathematician
Mechanical Automaton Engineer
Military Personnel
Music Theorist
Musicologist
Philosopher
Physicist
La Haye en Touraine
Descartes
Cartesius
Renatus Cartesius
Found
Errors
Many
Effect
Seemed
Discovery
Ignorance
Effects
Instruct
Doubt
Doubts
Effort
Embarrassed

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There is a great difference between mind and body insomuch as body is by nature always divisible, and the mind is entirely indivisible.
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It is possible that I am dreaming right now and that all of my perceptions are false.
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Conquer yourself rather than the world.
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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.
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The chief cause of human errors is to be found in the prejudices picked up in childhood.
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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.
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Everything is self-evident.
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Science is practical philosophy.
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I can doubt everything, except one thing, and that is the very fact that I doubt. Simply put - I think, therefore I am
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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.
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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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Each problem that I solved became a rule, which served afterwards to solve other problems.
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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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Wonder is the first of all the passions.
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Doubt is the origin of wisdom
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...it is certain that I am really distinct from my body, and can exist without it.
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And thereby make ourselves, as it were, the lords and masters of nature.
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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.
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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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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