"There is a little gland in the brain in which the soul exercises its functions in a more particular way than in the other parts."
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Quote collection
Rene Descartes quotes (page 6 of 8)
156 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"But in my opinion, all things in nature occur mathematically."
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"Give me extension and motion and I will construct the universe."
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"Neither divine grace nor natural knowledge ever diminishes freedom."
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"Sensations are nothing but confused modes of thinking."
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"[About Pierre de Fermat] It cannot be denied that he has had many exceptional ideas, and that he is a highly intelligent man. For my part, however, I have always been taught to take a broad overview of things, in order to be able to deduce from them general rules, which might be applicable elsewhere."
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"Travelling is almost like talking with those of other centuries."
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"In the matter of a difficult question it is more likely that the truth should have been discovered by the few than by the many."
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"These long chains of perfectly simple and easy reasonings by means of which geometers are accustomed to carry out their most difficult demonstrations had led me to fancy that everything that can fall under human knowledge forms a similar sequence; and that so long as we avoid accepting as true what is not so, and always preserve the right order of deduction of one thing from another, there can be nothing too remote to be reached in the end, or to well hidden to be discovered."
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"And I shall always hold myself more obliged to those by whose favour I enjoy uninterrupted leisure than to any who might offer me the most honourable positions in the world."
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"Because reason...is the only thing that makes us men, and distinguishes us from the beasts, I would prefer to believe that it exists, in its entirety, in each of us."
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"It is to the body alone that we should attribute everything that can be observed in us to oppose our reason."
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"The rainbow is such a remarkable phenomenon of nature, and its cause has been so meticulously sought after by inquiring minds throughout the ages, that I could not choose a more appropriate subject for demonstrating how, with the method I am using, we can arrive at knowledge not possessed at all by those whose writings are available to us."
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"Even if I were to suppose that I was dreaming and whatever I saw or imagined was false, yet I could not deny that ideas were truly in my mind."
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"Good sense is the most equitably distributed of all things because no matter how much or little a person has, everyone feels so abundantly provided with good sense that he feels no desire for more than he already possesses."
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"Common sense is the most fairly distributed thing in the world, for each one thinks he is so well-endowed with it that even those who are hardest to satisfy in all other matters are not in the habit of desiring more of it than they already have."
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"I am indeed amazed when I consider how weak my mind is and how prone to error."
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"The object of music is a Sound. The end; to delight, and move various Affections in us."
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"There is a great difference between mind and body insomuch as body is by nature always divisible, and the mind is entirely indivisible."
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"Hence reason also demands that, since our thoughts cannot all be true because we are not wholly perfect, what truth they do possess must inevitably be found in the thoughts we have when awake, rather than in our dreams."
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