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Rene Descartes Quotes

Rene Descartes quotes about true

French Mathematician March 31, 1596 – February 11, 1650

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Quotes

Some years ago I was struck by the large number of falsehoods that I had accepted as true in my childhood, and by the highly doubtful nature of the whole edifice that I had subsequently based on them. I realized that it was necessary, once in the course of my life, to demolish everything completely and start again right from the foundations if I wanted to establish anything at all in the sciences that was stable and likely to last. Rene Descartes
I very clearly recognise that the certainty and truth of all knowledge depends alone on the knowledge of the true God, in so much that, before I knew Him, I could not have a perfect knowledge of any other thing. Rene Descartes
Whence then come my errors? They come from the sole fact that since the will is much wider in its range and compass than the understanding, I do not restrain it within the same bounds, but extend it also to things which I do not understand: and as the will is of itself indifferent to these, it easily falls into error and sin, and chooses the evil for the good, or the false for the true. Rene Descartes
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. Rene Descartes
[I]t seems to be just as foolish to say, 'I imagine, in order to understand more clearly what I am,' as to say, 'I am now clearly awake and I see something true, but because I do not yet see it clearly enough I shall fall asleep so that my dreams will represent it to me more truly and clearly. Rene Descartes
What then is the source of my errors? They are owing simply to the fact that, since the will extends further than the intellect, I do not contain the will within the same boundaries; rather, I also extend it to things I do not understand. Because the will is indifferent in regard to such matters, it easily turns away from the true and the good; and in this way I am deceived and I sin. Rene Descartes
Rene Descartes quote: "The first precept was never to accept a thing as true until I..."
The first precept was never to accept a thing as true until I knew it as such without a single doubt. Rene Descartes
It is thus quite certain that the constitution of the true religion, the ordinances of which are derived from God, must be incomparably superior to that of every other. Rene Descartes
Rene Descartes quote: "When it is not in our power to determine what is true, we..."
When it is not in our power to determine what is true, we ought to follow what is most probable. Rene Descartes
Rene Descartes quote: "When it is not in our power to follow what is true, we ought..."
When it is not in our power to follow what is true, we ought to follow what is most probable. Rene Descartes

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