Quotes by Rene Descartes

Cogito ergo sum. (I think, therefore I am.)

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

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

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.

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

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

I think; therefore I am.

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

I thought the following four [rules] would be enough, provided that I made a firm and constant resolution not to fail even once in the observance of them. The first was never to accept anything as true if I had not evident knowledge of its being so; that is, carefully to avoid precipitancy and prejudice, and to embrace in my judgment only what presented itself to my mind so clearly and distinctly that I had no occasion to doubt it. The second, to divide each problem I examined into as many parts as was feasible, and as was requisite for its better solution. The third, to direct my thoughts in an orderly way; beginning with the simplest objects, those most apt to be known, and ascending little by little, in steps as it were, to the knowledge of the most complex; and establishing an order in thought even when the objects had no natural priority one to another. And the last, to make throughout such complete enumerations and such general surveys that I might be sure of leaving nothing out.