RENE DESCARTES

René Descartes was a French philosopher, scientist, and mathematician, widely considered a seminal figure in the emergence of modern philosophy and science. Considered as a father of modern philosophy. A man of high philosophical capacity after Aristotle.

• Born: March 31, 1596, Descartes, France

• Died: February 11, 1650, Stockholm, Sweden

• Parents: Camilo Davies, Joachim Descartes

• Written: Meditations on First Philosophy, Discourse on the Method, Principles of Philosophy

Great Thoughts Of Descartes

"The greatest minds are capable of the greatest vices as well as of the greatest virtues."

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

"I am indeed amazed when I consider how weak my mind is and how prone to error."

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

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

"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.”

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

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

“I am thing that thinks: that is, a things that doubts, affirms, denies, understands a few things, is ignorant of many things, is willing, is unwilling, and also which imagines and has sensory perceptions.”

“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”

"...For a time I reviewed the various occupations of men in this life, trying to choose out the best; and without wishing to say anything of the employment of others, i thought that I could not do better than continue in the one in which I found my self engaged, that is so say, in occupying my whole life in cultivating my Reason, and in advancing, as much as possible the knowledge of the truth in accordance with the method which I had prescribed myself. I had tasted so much satisfaction since beginning to use this method, that i did not believe that anything sweeter or more innocent could be found in this life; every day I discovered by its means something new which seemed to me sufficiently important, and not at all familiar to other men, The joy which I had so filled my soul that all else seemed of no account."