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It is possible that I am dreaming right now and that all of my perceptions are false.

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
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La Haye en Touraine
Descartes
Cartesius
Renatus Cartesius
Perceptions
Dreaming
False
Perception
Possible
Dream
Right

More quotes by Rene Descartes

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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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Mathematics is a more powerful instrument of knowledge than any other that has been bequeathed to us by human agency.
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Science is practical philosophy.
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Variant: When it is not in our power to follow what is true, we ought to follow what is most probable.
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... moral certainty is certainty which is sufficient to regulate our behaviour, or which measures up to the certainty we have on matters relating to the conduct of life which we never normally doubt, though we know that it is possible, absolutely speaking, that they may be false.
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Each problem that I solved became a rule, which served afterwards to solve other problems.
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I am thing that thinks: that is, a things that doubts,affirms, denies, understands a few things, is ignorant of many things, is willing, is unwilling, and also which imagines and has sensory perceptions.
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Give me extension and motion and I will construct the universe.
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The principal effect of the passions is that they incite and persuade the mind to will the events for which they prepared the body.
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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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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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How can you be certain that your whole life is not a dream?
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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 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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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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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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Except our own thoughts, there is nothing absolutely in our power.
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He lives well who is well hidden.
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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 accept no principles of physics which are not also accepted in mathematics.
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