René Descartes Quotes That Will Inspire You to Live Your Best Life

1. And thus, the actions of life often not allowing any delay, it is a truth very certain that, when it is not in our power to determine the most true opinions we ought to follow the most probable. Discourse on Method

2. Common sense is the most widely shared commodity in the world, for every man is convinced that he is well supplied with it.

3. Dubium sapientiae initium (Doubt is the origin of wisdom).

4. 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.

5. It is only prudent never to place complete confidence in that by which we have even once been deceived. Meditations on First Philosophy

6. The dreams we imagine when we are asleep should not in any way make us doubt the truth of the thoughts we have when we are awake. Discourse on Method and Meditations on First Philosophy

7. There is nothing more ancient than the truth.

8. You just keep pushing. You just keep pushing. I made every mistake that could be made. But I just kept pushing.

9. ...the greater objective (representative) perfection there is in our idea of a thing, the greater also must be the perfection of its cause. Principles of Philosophy

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

11. Some years ago I was struck by the large number of falsehoods that I had accepted as true in my childhood, and by the highly doubtful nature of the whole edifice that I had subsequently based on them. I realized that it was necessary, once in the course of my life, to demolish everything completely and start again right from the foundations if I wanted to establish anything at all in the sciences that was stable and likely to last. Meditations on First Philosophy