Top 100 René Descartes Quotes (2024 Update)

1. “I think, therefore I am.”

— René Descartes

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2. “The reading of all good books is like a conversation with the finest minds of past centuries.”

— René Descartes

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3. “Doubt is the origin of wisdom.”

— René Descartes

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4. “You just keep pushing. You just keep pushing. I made every mistake that could be made. But I just kept pushing.”

— René Descartes

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5. “Conquer yourself rather than the world.”

— René Descartes

6. “We do not describe the world we see, we see the world we can describe.”

— René Descartes

7. “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.”

— René Descartes

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8. “Mathematics is a more powerful instrument of knowledge than any other that has been bequeathed to us by human agency.”

— René Descartes

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

— René Descartes

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10. “The only thing that I know, is that I know nothing.”

— René Descartes

11. “De omnibus dubitandum.”

— René Descartes

12. “I can doubt everything, except one thing, and that is the very fact that I doubt. Simply put – I think, therefore I am.”

— René Descartes

Featured in: Doubt Quotes, Genius Quotes

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

— René Descartes

Featured in: Problem-Solving Quotes

14. “Nothing comes out of nothing.”

— René Descartes

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

— René Descartes

16. “To know what people really think, pay attention to what they do, rather than what they say.”

— René Descartes

17. “Any community that gets its laughs by pretending to be idiots will eventually be flooded by actual idiots who mistakenly believe that they’re in good company.”

— René Descartes

18. “Science is practical philosophy.”

— René Descartes

19. “Wonder is the first of all the passions.”

— René Descartes

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20. “All is to be doubted.”

— René Descartes

21. “He who hid well, lived well.”

— René Descartes

22. “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.”

— René Descartes

Featured in: Book Quotes, Reading Quotes

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

— René Descartes

24. “An optimist may see a light where there is none, but why must the pessimist always run to blow it out?”

— René Descartes

25. “I know that I exist; the question is, What is this ‘I’ that ‘I’ know.”

— René Descartes

26. “Intuition is the undoubting conception of a pure and attentive mind, which arises from the light of reason alone, and is more certain than deduction.”

— René Descartes

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27. “With me, everything turns into mathematics.”

— René Descartes

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

— René Descartes

29. “How can you be certain that your whole life is not a dream?”

— René Descartes

30. “Masked, I advance.”

— René Descartes

31. “Reason is nothing without imagination.”

— René Descartes

32. “He lives well who is well hidden.”

— René Descartes

33. “I desire to live in peace and to continue the life I have begun under the motto ’to live well you must live unseen.”

— René Descartes

34. “The senses deceive from time to time, and it is prudent never to trust wholly those who have deceived us even once.”

— René Descartes

35. “Everything is self-evident.”

— René Descartes

36. “I have concluded the evident existence of God, and that my existence depends entirely on God in all the moments of my life, that I do not think that the human spirit may know anything with greater evidence and certitude.”

— René Descartes

37. “Whenever anyone has offended me, I try to raise my soul so high that the offense cannot reach it.”

— René Descartes

38. “But in my opinion, all things in nature occur mathematically.”

— René Descartes

39. “There is nothing more ancient than the truth.”

— René Descartes

40. “The chief cause of human errors is to be found in the prejudices picked up in childhood.”

— René Descartes

41. “In God there is an infinitude of things which I cannot comprehend, nor possibly even reach in any way by thought; for it is the nature of the infinite that my nature, which is finite and limited, should not comprehend it.”

— René Descartes

42. “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.”

— René Descartes

43. “Nothing is more fairly distributed than common sense: no one thinks he needs more of it than he already has.”

— René Descartes

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

— René Descartes

45. “Illusory joy is often worth more than genuine sorrow.”

— René Descartes

46. “The greatest minds are capable of the greatest vices as well as of the greatest virtues.”

— René Descartes

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47. “In order to improve the mind, we ought less to learn, than to contemplate.”

— René Descartes

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48. “When I consider this carefully, I find not a single property which with certainty separates the waking state from the dream. How can you be certain that your whole life is not a dream?”

— René Descartes

49. “A state is better governed which has few laws, and those laws strictly observed.”

— René Descartes

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

— René Descartes