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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.

Rene Descartes

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Rene Descartes
Age: 53 †
Born: 1596
Born: March 31
Died: 1650
Died: February 11
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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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In God there is an infinitude of things which I cannot comprehend, nor possibly even reach in any way by thought for it is the nature of the infinite that my nature, which is finite and limited, should not comprehend it.
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Sensations are nothing but confused modes of thinking.
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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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It is to the body alone that we should attribute everything that can be observed in us to oppose our reason.
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I suppose therefore that all things I see are illusions I believe that nothing has ever existed of everything my lying memory tells me. I think I have no senses. I believe that body, shape, extension, motion, location are functions. What is there then that can be taken as true? Perhaps only this one thing, that nothing at all is certain.
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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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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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It is not enough to have a good mind. The main thing is to use it well.
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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.
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Doubt is the origin of wisdom
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Conquer yourself rather than the world.
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I know that I exist the question is, What is this 'I' that 'I' know.
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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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And thereby make ourselves, as it were, the lords and masters of nature.
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I accept no principles of physics which are not also accepted in mathematics.
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There is a little gland in the brain in which the soul exercises its functions in a more particular way than in the other parts.
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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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It is contrary to reasoning to say that there is a vacuum or space in which there is absolutely nothing.
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