Spiritual Forum

René Descartes (31 March 1596 – 11 February 1650) was a French philosopher, mathematician, and writer who spent most of his adult life in the Dutch Republic. Descartes has been dubbed the 'Father of Modern Philosophy', and much subsequent Western philosophy is a response to his writings, which are studied closely to this day. In particular, his Meditations on First Philosophy continues to be a standard text at most university philosophy departments.

Selected Quotes of René Descartes are:

-Doubt is the origin of wisdom.

-I think; therefore I am.

-There is nothing more ancient than the truth.

-If you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things.

-The reading of all good books is like conversation with the finest men of past centuries.

-The greatest minds are capable of the greatest vices as well as of the greatest virtues.

-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.

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

-Before examining this more carefully and investigating its consequences, I want to dwell for a moment in the contemplation of God, to ponder His attributes in me, to see, admire, and adore the beauty of His boundless light, insofar as my clouded insight allows. Believing that the supreme happiness of the other life consists wholly of the contemplation of divine greatness, I now find that through less perfect contemplation of the same sort I can gain the greatest joy available in this life.

-I had become aware, as early as my college days, that no opinion, however absurd and incredible can be imagined, that has not been held by one of the philosophers.

-Each problem that I solved became a rule, which served afterwards to solve other problems.

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

-Of all things, good sense is the most fairly distributed: everyone thinks he is so well supplied with it that even those who are the hardest to satisfy in every other respect never desire more of it than they already have.

-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.

-I experienced in myself a certain capacity for judging which I have doubtless received from God, like all the other things that I possess; and as He could not desire to deceive me, it is clear that He has not given me a faculty that will lead me to err if I use it aright.

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