Rene Descartes
Rene Descartes
René Descarteswas a French philosopher, mathematician, and scientist. Dubbed the father of modern western philosophy, much of subsequent Western philosophy is a response to his writings, which are studied closely to this day. He spent about 20 years of his life in the Dutch Republic...
ProfessionPhilosopher
Date of Birth31 March 1596
CityIndre-et-Loire, France
perseverance mistake women
You just keep pushing. You just keep pushing. I made every mistake that could be made. But I just kept pushing.
powerful knowledge math
Mathematics is a more powerful instrument of knowledge than any other that has been bequeathed to us by human agency.
thinking power aries
Except our own thoughts, there is nothing absolutely in our power.
running attitude optimistic
An optimist may see a light where there is none, but why must the pessimist always run to blow it out?
knowledge knows
I know that I exist; the question is, What is this 'I' that 'I' know.
world christianity
God alone is the author of all the motions in the world.
wells
He who hid well, lived well.
situations-in-life worthwhile-things judging
Situations in life often permit no delay; and when we cannot determine the course which is certainly best, we must follow the one which is probably the best. This frame of mind freed me also from the repentance and remorse commonly felt by those vacillating individuals who are always seeking as worthwhile things which they later judge to be bad.
knows
The only thing that I know, is that I know nothing
success witty humorous
Each problem that I solved became a rule, which served afterwards to solve other problems.
thinking common-sense needs
Nothing is more fairly distributed than common sense: no one thinks he needs more of it than he already has.
believe laughing community
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.
ignorance discovery errors
For I found myself embarrassed with so many doubts and errors that it seemed to me that the effort to instruct myself had no effect other than th eincreasing discovery of my own ignorance
believe greatness light
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.