"We do not describe the world we see, we see the world we can describe."
"My third maxim was to try always to conquer myself rather than fortune, and to change my desires rather than the order of the world, and generally to accustom myself to believing that there is nothing entirely in our power except our thoughts, so that after we have done our best regarding things external to us, everything in which we do not succeed is for us absolutely impossible."
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Source: Rene Descartes, Elizabeth Sanderson Haldane, G. R. T. Ross (2003). “Discourse on Method and Meditations”, p.88, Courier Corporation
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More quotes by Rene Descartes
"Whenever anyone has offended me, I try to raise my soul so high that the offense cannot reach it."
"It is not enough to have a good mind. The main thing is to use it well."
"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."
"By 'God', I understand, a substance which is infinite, independent, supremely intelligent, supremely powerful, and which created both myself and everything else [...] that exists. All these attributes are such that, the more carefully I concentrate on them, the less possible it seems that they could have originated from me alone. So, from what has been said it must be concluded that God necessarily exists."
"De omnibus dubitandum"