Quotes from Rene Descartes

Divide each difficulty into as many parts as is feasible and necessary to resolve it.

Everything is self-evident.

The object of music is a Sound. The end; to delight, and move various Affections in us.

There is a great difference between mind and body insomuch as body is by nature always divisible, and the mind is entirely indivisible.

Except our own thoughts, there is nothing absolutely in our power.

Let whoever can do so deceive me, he will never bring it about that I am nothing, so long as I continue to think I am something.

Illusory joy is often worth more than genuine sorrow.

The only thing we have power over in the universe is our own thoughts.

Variant: When it is not in our power to follow what is true, we ought to follow what is most probable.

Bad books engender bad habits, but bad habits engender good books.

It is not enough to have a good mind the main thing is to use it well.

Common sense is the most widely shared commodity in the world, for every man is convinced that he is well supplied with it.

Reason is nothing without imagination.

I think; therefore I am.

Truths are more likely to be discovered by one man than by a nation

To live without philosophizing is in truth the same as keeping the eyes closed without attempting to open them.

I am indeed amazed when I consider how weak my mind is and how prone to error.

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.

Good sense is the most equitably distributed of all things because no matter how much or little a person has, everyone feels so abundantly provided with good sense that he feels no desire for more than he already possesses.

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.

I doubt, therefore I think, therefore I am.

Bad books engender bad habits, but bad habits engender good books.

I am accustomed to sleep and in my dreams to imagine the same things that lunatics imagine when awake.

It is best not to go on for great quest for truth , it will only make you miserable