Quotes About Existence

thence concluded that I was a substance whose whole essence or nature consists only in thinking, and which, that it may exist, has need of no place, nor is dependent on any material thing; so that " I," that is to say, the mind by which I am what I am, is wholly distinct from the body, and is even more easily known than the latter, and is such, that although the latter were not, it would still continue to be all that it is.

But this could not be the case with-the idea of a nature more perfect than myself; for to receive it from nothing was a thing manifestly impossible; and, because it is not less repugnant that the more perfect should be an effect of, and dependence on the less perfect, than that something should proceed from nothing, it was equally impossible that I could hold it from myself:

Finally, if there be still persons who are not sufficiently persuaded of the existence of God and of the soul, by the reasons I have adduced, I am desirous that they should know that all the other propositions, of the truth of which they deem themselves perhaps more assured, as that we have a body, and that there exist stars and an earth, and such like, are less certain;

I must finally conclude that this proposition, I am, I exist, is necessarily true whenever it is put forward by me or conceived in my mind.

Nature teaches me that so many other bodies exist around mine of which some are to be avoided, some sought after.

I am, I exist.

Certainly no one can deny that we have such an idea of God in ourselves unless they think that there is no knowledge at all of God in human minds.

Is there anything more intimate or more internal than pain?

Therefore from the fact alone that I know that I exist and that, at the same time, I notice absolutely nothing else that belongs to my nature apart from the single fact that I am a thinking thing, I correctly conclude that my essence consists in this alone, that I am a thinking thing.

I am thinking, therefore I exist.

One needs to know what thought is, what existence is and what certainty is.

One cannot conceive anything so strange and so implausible that it has not already been said by one philosopher or another.

the greater objective (representative) perfection there is in our idea of a thing, the greater also must be the perfection of its cause.

while I wanted thus to think that everything was false, it necessarily had to be the case that I, who was thinking this, was something. And noticing that this truth—I think, therefore I am—was so firm and so assured that all the most extravagant suppositions of the skeptics were incapable of shaking it, I judged that I could accept it without scruple as the first principle of the philosophy I was seeking.

I thence concluded that I was a substance whose whole essence or nature consists only in thinking, and which, that it may exist, has need of no place, nor is dependent on any material thing; so that " I," that is to say, the mind by which I am what I am, is wholly distinct from the body, and is even more easily known than the latter, and is such, that although the latter were not, it would still continue to be all that it is.

And it is evident that it is not less repugnant that falsity or imperfection, in so far as it is imperfection, should proceed from God, than that truth or perfection should proceed from nothing.

Moreover, I am aware that most of the irreligious deny the existence of God, and the distinctness of the human soul from the body, for no other reason than because these points, as they allege, have never as yet been demonstrated.

Be that as it may, there is fixed in my mind a certain opinion of long [21] standing, namely that there exists a God who is able to do anything and by whom I, such as I am, have been created. How do I know that he did not bring it about that there is no earth at all, no heavens, no extended thing, no shape, no size, no place, and yet bringing it about that all these things appear to me to exist precisely as they do now?

I think, therefore I am"), the idea that the mere act of thinking about one's existence proves there is someone there to do the thinking.

And let him do his best at deception, he will never bring it about that I am nothing so long as I shall think that I am something.

Gustavo Solivellas dice: "Pienso, luego existo" (Descartes)

I am, I exist" is necessarily true every time I utter it or conceive it in my mind.

Ich denke also bin ich (cogit ergo sum)

Porque por naturaleza, considerada en general, no entiendo otra cosa sino Dios mismo, o bien el orden y la disposición que Dios ha establecido en las cosas creadas. Y por mi naturaleza en particular, no entiendo otra cosa sino la complexión o reunión de todo aquello que Dios me ha dado.