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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.

Rene Descartes

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Rene Descartes
Age: 53 †
Born: 1596
Born: March 31
Died: 1650
Died: February 11
Astronomer
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Mathematician
Mechanical Automaton Engineer
Military Personnel
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La Haye en Touraine
Descartes
Cartesius
Renatus Cartesius
Giving
Instead
Things
Ought
Never
Taken
Think
Whatever
Thinking
Rather
Owed
Away
Deprived
Give
Generous
Anything
Grateful

More quotes by Rene Descartes

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Except our own thoughts, there is nothing absolutely in our power.
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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 reading of all good books is indeed like a conversation with the noblest men of past centuries who were the authors of them, nay a carefully studied conversation, in which they reveal to us none but the best of their thoughts.
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Travelling is almost like talking with those of other centuries.
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It's the familiar love-hate syndrome of seduction: I don't really care what it is I say, I care only that you like it.
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Perfect numbers like perfect men are very rare.
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And thereby make ourselves, as it were, the lords and masters of nature.
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If I go for the alternative which is false, then obviously I shall be in error if I take the other side, then it is by... chance that I arrive at the truth, and I shall still be at fault.... In this incorrect use of free will may be found the privation which constitutes the essence of error.
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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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The rainbow is such a remarkable phenomenon of nature, and its cause has been so meticulously sought after by inquiring minds throughout the ages, that I could not choose a more appropriate subject for demonstrating how, with the method I am using, we can arrive at knowledge not possessed at all by those whose writings are available to us.
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I hope that posterity will judge me kindly, not only as to the things which I have explained, but also to those which I have intentionally omitted so as to leave to others the pleasure of discovery.
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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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Doubt is the origin of wisdom
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Even if I were to suppose that I was dreaming and whatever I saw or imagined was false, yet I could not deny that ideas were truly in my mind.
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I was convinced that our beliefs are based much more on custom and example than on any certain knowledge.
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The two operations of our understanding, intuition and deduction, on which alone we have said we must rely in the acquisition of knowledge.
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Situations in life often permit no delay and when we cannot determine the course which is certainly best, we must follow the one which is probably the best. This frame of mind freed me also from the repentance and remorse commonly felt by those vacillating individuals who are always seeking as worthwhile things which they later judge to be bad.
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Whenever anyone has offended me, I try to raise my soul so high that the offense cannot reach it.
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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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It is not enough to have a good mind. The main thing is to use it well.
Rene Descartes