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The Only Thing We Have Power Over In The Universe Is Our Own Thoughts.
-Rene Descartes
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The Only Thing We

Rene Descartes
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The Only Thing We Have Power Over In The Universe Is Our Own Thoughts.

Understanding the Quote: "the only thing we have power over in the universe is our..."

This quote by Rene Descartes reflects deeply on the theme of universe. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Universe, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how Rene Descartes interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About Rene Descartes

Rene Descartes is celebrated for insightful thoughts on universe and motivation. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

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Topic
Universe
More From Rene Descartes
The Chief Cause Of Human Errors Is To Be Found In The Prejudices Picked Up In Childhood.
Education
Teacher
Errors
Each Problem That I Solved Became A Rule, Which Served Afterwards To Solve Other Problems.
Success
Witty
Humorous
The Two Operations Of Our Understanding, Intuition And Deduction, On Which Alone We Have Said We Must Rely In The Acquisition Of Knowledge.
Math
Two
Understanding
For Each Of Us There Is A Set Limit To Our Intellectual Powers Which We Cannot Pass.
Encouragement
Hard Work
Intellectual
I Accept No Principles Of Physics Which Are Not Also Accepted In Mathematics.
Principles
Physics
Accepted
Science Is Practical Philosophy.
Philosophy
Science
Practicals
So Far, I Have Been A Spectator In This Theater Which Is The World, But I Am Now About To Mount The Stage, And I Come Forward Masked.
World
Theater
Stage
When I Consider This Carefully, I Find Not A Single Property Which With Certainty Separates The Waking State From The Dream. How Can You Be Certain That Your Whole Life Is Not A Dream?
Love
Dream
Ontology
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.
Exercise
Soul
Brain
Here I Beg You To Observe In Passing That The Scruples That Prevented Ancient Writers From Using Arithmetical Terms In Geometry, And Which Can Only Be A Consequence Of Their Inability To Perceive Clearly The Relation Between These Two Subjects, Introduced Much Obscurity And Confusion Into Their Explanations.
Two
Confusion
Experience
I Experienced In Myself A Certain Capacity For Judging Which I Have Doubtless Received From God, Like All The Other Things That I Possess; And As He Could Not Desire To Deceive Me, It Is Clear That He Has Not Given Me A Faculty That Will Lead Me To Err If I Use It Aright.
Judging
Desire
Use
Even The Mind Depends So Much On Temperament And The Disposition Of One's Bodily Organs That, If It Is Possible To Find A Way To Make People Generally More Wise And More Skilful Than They Have Been In The Past, I Believe That We Should Look For It In Medicine. It Is True That Medicine As It Is Currently Practiced Contains Little Of Much Use.
Wise
Believe
Science
God Alone Is The Author Of All The Motions In The World.
World
Christianity
In Order To Improve The Mind, We Ought Less To Learn, Than To Contemplate.
Learning
Caring
Order
I Have Concluded The Evident Existence Of God, And That My Existence Depends Entirely On God In All The Moments Of My Life, That I Do Not Think That The Human Spirit May Know Anything With Greater Evidence And Certitude.
Philosophy
Thinking
May
The Only Thing We Have Power Over In The Universe Is Our Own Thoughts.
Universe
I Desire To Live In Peace And To Continue The Life I Have Begun Under The Motto 'to Live Well You Must Live Unseen
Desire
Unseen
Motto
Now Therefore, That My Mind Is Free From All Cares, And That I Have Obtained For Myself Assured Leisure In Peaceful Solitude, I Shall Apply Myself Seriously And Freely To The General Destruction Of All My Former Opinions.
Peaceful
Solitude
Mind
As I Considered The Matter Carefully It Gradually Came To Light That All Those Matters Only Were Referred To Mathematics In Which Order And Measurements Are Investigated, And That It Makes No Difference Whether It Be In Numbers, Figures, Stars, Sounds Or Any Other Object That The Question Of Measurement Arises. I Saw Consequently That There Must Be Some General Science To Explain That Element As A Whole Which Gives Rise To Problems About Order And Measurement, Restricted As These Are To No Special Subject Matter. This, I Perceived Was Called 'universal Mathematics'.
Stars
Science
Light
And Thereby Make Ourselves, As It Were, The Lords And Masters Of Nature.
Science
Lord
Masters
Common Sense Is The Best Distributed Thing In The World, For We All Think We Possess A Good Share Of It.
Thinking
Common Sense
World
On The One Hand I Have A Clear And Distinct Idea Of Myself, In So Far As I Am A Thinking, Non-extended Thing; And On The Other Hand I Have A Distinct Idea Of Body, In So Far A This Is Simply An Extended, Non-thinking Thing. And, Accordingly, It Is Certain That I Am Really Distinct From My Body, And Exist Without It.
Thinking
Hands
Ideas
The Object Of Music Is A Sound. The End; To Delight, And Move Various Affections In Us.
Music
Moving
Sound
In Philosophy, When We Make Use Of False Principles, We Depart The Farther From The Knowledge Of Truth And Wisdom Exactly In Proportion To The Care With Which We Cultivate Them, And Apply Ourselves To The Deduction Of Diverse Consequences From Them, Thinking That We Are Philosophizing Well, While We Are Only Departing The Farther From The Truth; From Which It Must Be Inferred That They Who Have Learned The Least Of All That Has Been Hitherto Distinguished By The Name Of Philosophy Are The Most Fitted For The Apprehension Of Truth.
Philosophy
Thinking
Names
I Know That I Exist; The Question Is, What Is This 'i' That 'i' Know.
Knowledge
Knows
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.
Believe
Greatness
Light
If I Found Any New Truths In The Sciences, I Can Say That They Follow From, Or Depend On, Five Or Six Principal Problems Which I Succeeded In Solving And Which I Regard As So Many Battles Where The Fortunes Of War Were On My Side.
War
Math
Battle
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.
Powerful
Independent
Intelligent
I Suppose Therefore That All Things I See Are Illusions; I Believe That Nothing Has Ever Existed Of Everything My Lying Memory Tells Me. I Think I Have No Senses. I Believe That Body, Shape, Extension, Motion, Location Are Functions. What Is There Then That Can Be Taken As True? Perhaps Only This One Thing, That Nothing At All Is Certain.
Memories
Lying
Believe
Whenever Anyone Has Offended Me, I Try To Raise My Soul So High That The Offense Cannot Reach It.
Inspirational
Spiritual
Attitude
De Omnibus Dubitandum
Philosophical
I Am Accustomed To Sleep And In My Dreams To Imagine The Same Things That Lunatics Imagine When Awake.
Dream
Sleep
Awake At Night
Perfect Numbers Like Perfect Men Are Very Rare.
Math
Men
Numbers
The Only Thing That I Know, Is That I Know Nothing
Knows
With Me, Everything Turns Into Mathematics.
Math
Mathematics
Mathematical
An Optimist May See A Light Where There Is None, But Why Must The Pessimist Always Run To Blow It Out?
Running
Attitude
Optimistic
All Is To Be Doubted.
Knowing Who You Are
Doubted
Who You Are
He Lives Well Who Is Well Hidden.
Luxury
Wells
Conquer Yourself Rather Than The World.
World
Conquer
Let Whoever Can Do So Deceive Me, He Will Never Bring It About That I Am Nothing, So Long As I Continue To Think I Am Something.
Thinking
Long
Deceiving
Except Our Own Thoughts, There Is Nothing Absolutely In Our Power.
Power
Thinking
Aries
If We Possessed A Thorough Knowledge Of All The Parts Of The Seed Of Any Animal (e.g. Man), We Could From That Alone, Be Reasons Entirely Mathematical And Certain, Deduce The Whole Conformation And Figure Of Each Of Its Members, And, Conversely If We Knew Several Peculiarities Of This Conformation, We Would From Those Deduce The Nature Of Its Seed.
Nature
Math
Animal
Mathematics Is A More Powerful Instrument Of Knowledge Than Any Other That Has Been Bequeathed To Us By Human Agency.
Powerful
Knowledge
Math
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.
Life
Truth
Real
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
Ignorance
Errors
Discovery
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.
Truth
Should Have
Difficult Questions
It's The Familiar Love-hate Syndrome Of Seduction: "i Don't Really Care What It Is I Say, I Care Only That You Like It."
Hate
Care
Seduction
We Call Infinite That Thing Whose Limits We Have Not Perceived, And So By That Word We Do Not Signify What We Understand About A Thing, But Rather What We Do Not Understand.
Ontology
Limits
Logic
Illusory Joy Is Often Worth More Than Genuine Sorrow.
Joy
Sorrow
Genuine
Common Sense Is The Most Widely Shared Commodity In The World, For Every Man Is Convinced That He Is Well Supplied With It.
Humorous
Men
Common Sense
Every Man Is Indeed Bound To Do What He Can To Promote The Good Of Others, And A Man Who Is Of No Use To Anyone Is Strictly Worthless.
Life
Men
Use
The Reading Of All Good Books Is Like A Conversation With The Finest Minds Of Past Centuries.
Wisdom
Book
Reading
When Writing About Transcendental Issues, Be Transcendentally Clear.
Writing
Math
Issues
We Never Understand A Thing So Well,and Make It Our Own, As When We Have Discovered It For Ourselves.
Knowledge
Wells
But In My Opinion, All Things In Nature Occur Mathematically.
Opinion
All Things
...it Is Certain That I Am Really Distinct From My Body, And Can Exist Without It.
Body
Awareness
Certain
Variant: When It Is Not In Our Power To Follow What Is True, We Ought To Follow What Is Most Probable.
Philosophical
Probable Cause
Probability
The Greatest Minds Are Capable Of The Greatest Vices As Well As Of The Greatest Virtues.
Book
Inspiration
Beer
The First Precept Was Never To Accept A Thing As True Until I Knew It As Such Without A Single Doubt.
Philosophical
Doubt
Firsts
We Do Not Describe The World We See, We See The World We Can Describe.
World
If I Simply Refrain From Making A Judgment In Cases Where I Do Not Perceive The Truth With Sufficient Clarity And Distinctness, Then It Is Clear That I Am Behaving Correctly And Avoiding Error.
Errors
Clarity
Judgment
What Then Is The Source Of My Errors? They Are Owing Simply To The Fact That, Since The Will Extends Further Than The Intellect, I Do Not Contain The Will Within The Same Boundaries; Rather, I Also Extend It To Things I Do Not Understand. Because The Will Is Indifferent In Regard To Such Matters, It Easily Turns Away From The True And The Good; And In This Way I Am Deceived And I Sin.
Errors
Owing
Matter
Omnia Apud Me Mathematica Fiunt.
Philosophical
Nothing Is More Fairly Distributed Than Common Sense: No One Thinks He Needs More Of It Than He Already Has.
Thinking
Common Sense
Needs
Divide Each Difficulty At Hand Into As Many Pieces As Possible And As Could Be Required To Better Solve Them.
Hands
Pieces
Difficulty
Reason Is Nothing Without Imagination.
Imagination
Reason
Human Wisdom Remains Always One And The Same Although Applied To The Most Diverse Objects And It Is No More Changed By Their Diversity Than The Sunshine Is Changed By The Variety Of Objects Which It Illuminates.
Sunshine
Diversity
Experience
The Only Secure Knowledge Is That I Exist.
Philosophical
Secure
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.
Desire
Littles
Matter
To Live Without Philosophizing Is In Truth The Same As Keeping The Eyes Closed Without Attempting To Open Them.
Eye
Attempting
I Did Not Imitate The Skeptics Who Doubt Only For Doubting's Sake, And Pretend To Be Always Undecided; On The Contrary, My Whole Intention Was To Arrive At A Certainty, And To Dig Away The Drift And The Sand Until I Reached The Rock Or The Clay Beneath.
Rocks
Doubt
Clay
Everything Is Self-evident.
Reality
Self
Evident
Divide Each Difficulty Into As Many Parts As Is Feasible And Necessary To Resolve It.
Encouragement
Philosophical
Simplicity
Everybody Thinks Himself So Well Supplied With Common Sense That Even Those Most Difficult To Please. . . Never Desire More Of It Than They Already Have.
Thinking
Common Sense
Desire
But I Cannot Forget That, At Other Times I Have Been Deceived In Sleep By Similar Illusions; And, Attentively Considering Those Cases, I Perceive So Clearly That There Exist No Certain Marks By Which The State Of Waking Can Ever Be Distinguished From Sleep, That I Feel Greatly Astonished; And In Amazement I Almost Persuade Myself That I Am Now Dreaming.
Dream
Sleep
Waking
Good Sense Is, Of All Things Among Men, The Most Equally Distributed; For Every One Thinks Himself So Abundantly Provided With It, That Those Even Who Are The Most Difficult To Satisfy In Everything Else, Do Not Usually Desire A Larger Measure Of This Quality Than They Already Possess.
Men
Thinking
Desire
I Concluded That I Might Take As A General Rule The Principle That All Things Which We Very Clearly And Obviously Conceive Are True: Only Observing, However, That There Is Some Difficulty In Rightly Determining The Objects Which We Distinctly Conceive.
Math
Principles
Might
Truths Are More Likely To Be Discovered By One Man Than By A Nation
Inspirational
Men
Nations
Although My Knowledge Grows More And More, Nevertheless I Do Not For That Reason Believe That It Can Ever Be Actually Infinite, Since It Can Never Reach A Point So High That It Will Be Unable To Attain Any Greater Increase.
Believe
Ontology
Logic
It Is Contrary To Reasoning To Say That There Is A Vacuum Or Space In Which There Is Absolutely Nothing.
Space
Vacuums
Contrary
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.
Believe
Men
Beast
The Senses Deceive From Time To Time, And It Is Prudent Never To Trust Wholly Those Who Have Deceived Us Even Once.
Trust
Deceived Us
Hype
Travelling Is Almost Like Talking With Those Of Other Centuries.
Travel
Journey
Talking
I Think; Therefore I Am.
Inspirational
Atheist
Humorous
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.
Dream
Ideas
Mind
Just As We Believe By Faith That The Greatest Happiness Of The Next Life Consists Simply In The Contemplation Of This Divine Majesty, Likewise We Experience That We Derive The Greatest Joy Of Which We Are Capable In This Life From The Same Contemplation, Even Though It Is Much Less Perfect.
Believe
Perfect
Joy
It Must Not Be Thought That It Is Ever Possible To Reach The Interior Earth By Any Perseverance In Mining: Both Because The Exterior Earth Is Too Thick, In Comparison With Human Strength; And Especially Because Of The Intermediate Waters, Which Would Gush Forth With Greater Impetus, The Deeper The Place In Which Their Veins Were First Opened; And Which Would Drown All Miners.
Perseverance
Science
Water
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.
Life
Thinking
Perception
Sensations Are Nothing But Confused Modes Of Thinking.
Confused
Thinking
Sensations
I Was Convinced That Our Beliefs Are Based Much More On Custom And Example Than On Any Certain Knowledge.
Atheism
Example
Belief
There Is A Great Difference Between Mind And Body Insomuch As Body Is By Nature Always Divisible, And The Mind Is Entirely Indivisible.
Differences
Mind
Body
Doubt Is The Origin Of Wisdom
Doubt
Aries
Thrive
For How Do We Know That The Thoughts Which Occur In Dreaming Are False Rather Than Those Others Which We Experience When Awake, Since The Former Are Often Not Less Vivid And Distinct Than The Latter?
Dream
Vivid
Latter
The Mind Effortlessly And Automatically Takes In New Ideas, Which Remain In Limbo Until Verified Or Rejected By Conscious, Rational Analysis.
Ideas
Mind
Analysis
The Nature Of Matter, Or Body Considered In General, Consists Not In Its Being Something Which Is Hard Or Heavy Or Coloured, Or Which Affects The Senses In Any Way, But Simply In Its Being Something Which Is Extended In Length, Breadth And Depth.
Science
Depth
Body
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.
Respect
Thinking
Common Sense
Nothing Comes Out Of Nothing.
Aries
The Greatest Minds, As They Are Capable Of The Highest Excellencies, Are Open Likewise To The Greatest Aberrations; And Those Who Travel Very Slowly May Yet Make Far Greater Progress, Provided They Keep Always To The Straight Road, Than Those Who, While They Run, Forsake It.
Running
Mind
Progress
The Principal Effect Of The Passions Is That They Incite And Persuade The Mind To Will The Events For Which They Prepared The Body.
Passion
Mind
Events
There Is Nothing So Far Removed From Us As To Be Beyond Our Reach, Or So Hidden That We Cannot Discover It.
Persistence
Discovery
Space
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.
Situations In Life
Worthwhile Things
Judging
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.
Change
Believe
Power
There Is A Difference Between Happiness, The Supreme Good, And The Final End Or Goal Toward Which Our Actions Ought To Tend. For Happiness Is Not The Supreme Good, But Presupposes It, Being The Contentment Or Satisfaction Of The Mind Which Results From Possessing It.
Differences
Goal
Mind
I Am Indeed Amazed When I Consider How Weak My Mind Is And How Prone To Error.
Errors
Mind
Weak
Few Look For Truth; Many Prowl About For A Reputation Of Profundity By Arrogantly Challenging Whichever Arguments Are The Best.
Challenges
Looks
Reputation
This Result Could Have Been Achieved Either By His [god] Endowing My Intellect With A Clear And Distinct Perception Of Everything About Which I Would Ever Deliberate, Or Simply By Impressing The Following Rule So Firmly Upon My Memory That I Could Never Forget It: I Should Never Judge Anything That I Do Not Clearly And Distinctly Understand.
Memories
Judging
Perception
The Entire Method Consists In The Order And Arrangement Of The Things To Which The Mind's Eye Must Turn So That We Can Discover Some Truth.
Eye
Order
Mind
A State Is Better Governed Which Has Few Laws, And Those Laws Strictly Observed.
Law
States
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.
Fall
Mean
Math
I Am Thinking, Therefore I Exist. (...) I Was A Substance Whose Whole Essence Or Nature Is Solely To Think, And Which Does Not Require Any Place, Or Depend On Any Material Thing, In Order To Exist. Accordingly This 'i' - That Is, The Soul By Which I Am What I Am - Is Entirely Distinct From The Body, And Indeed Is Easier To Know Than The Body, And Would Not Fail To Be Whatever It Is, Even If The Body Did Not Exist.
Thinking
Order
Essence
Neither Divine Grace Nor Natural Knowledge Ever Diminishes Freedom.
Grace
Natural
Divine
I Should Consider That I Know Nothing About Physics If I Were Able To Explain Only How Things Might Be, And Were Unable To Demonstrate That They Could Not Be Otherwise.
Science
Might
Able
Intuition Is The Undoubting Conception Of A Pure And Attentive Mind, Which Arises From The Light Of Reason Alone, And Is More Certain Than Deduction.
Light
Intuition
Mind
Give Me Extension And Motion And I Will Construct The Universe.
Math
Giving
Give Me
There Is Nothing More Ancient Than The Truth.
Ancient
Desire Awakens Only To Things That Are Thought Possible.
Desire
Archimedes, That He Might Transport The Entire Globe ... Demanded Only A Point That Was Firm And Immovable; So Also, I Shall Be Entitled To Entertain The Highest Expectations, If I Am Fortunate Enough To Discover Only One Thing That Is Certain And Indubitable.
Expectations
Might
Enough
A Person Has Two Passions For Love And Abhorrence. A Big Disposition To Excessiveness Has Just A Love, Because It Is More Ardent And Stronger.
Passion
Love Is
Two
At Last I Will Devote Myself Sincerely And Without Reservation To The General Demolition Of My Opinions.
Lasts
Opinion
Demolition
The Reading Of All Good Books Is Indeed Like A Conversation With The Noblest Men Of Past Centuries Who Were The Authors Of Them, Nay A Carefully Studied Conversation, In Which They Reveal To Us None But The Best Of Their Thoughts.
Book
Reading
Past
There Is Nothing So Strange And So Unbelievable That It Has Not Been Said By One Philosopher Or Another.
Philosopher
Strange
Said
Your Joy Is Your Sorrow Unmasked. And The Self-same Well From Which Your Laughter Rises Was Often-times Filled With Your Tears.
Happiness
Wisdom
Laughter
Wonder Is The First Of All The Passions.
Passion
Magic
Firsts
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.
Writing
Discovery
Rainbow
So Blind Is The Curiosity By Which Mortals Are Possessed, That They Often Conduct Their Minds Along Unexplored Routes, Having No Reason To Hope For Success, But Merely Being Willing To Risk The Experiment Of Finding Whether The Truth They Seek Lies There.
Lying
Risk
Curiosity
I Can Doubt Everything, Except One Thing, And That Is The Very Fact That I Doubt. Simply Put - I Think, Therefore I Am
Thinking
Doubt
Genius
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.
Numbers
Years
Childhood
Instead I Ought To Be Grateful To Him Who Never Owed Me Anything For Having Been So Generous To Me, Rather Than Think That He Deprived Me Of Those Things Or Has Taken Away From Me Whatever He Did Not Give Me.
Taken
Grateful
Thinking
Intuitive Knowledge Is An Illumination Of The Soul, Whereby It Beholds In The Light Of God Those Things Which It Pleases Him To Reveal To Us By A Direct Impression Of Divine Clearness.
Light
Illumination
Soul
But Possibly I Am Something More Than I Suppose Myself To Be.
You Just Keep Pushing. You Just Keep Pushing. I Made Every Mistake That Could Be Made. But I Just Kept Pushing.
Perseverance
Mistake
Women
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.
Dream
Perfect
Body
In God There Is An Infinitude Of Things Which I Cannot Comprehend, Nor Possibly Even Reach In Any Way By Thought; For It Is The Nature Of The Infinite That My Nature, Which Is Finite And Limited, Should Not Comprehend It.
Way
Infinite
Should
If ... It Is Not In My Power To Arrive At The Knowledge Of Any Truth, I May At Least Do What Is In My Power, Namely, Suspend Judgement.
Judgement
May
Judgment
It Is Best Not To Go On For Great Quest For Truth , It Will Only Make You Miserable
Goes On
Quests
Aries
For To Be Possessed Of A Vigorous Mind Is Not Enough; The Prime Requisite Is Rightly To Apply It.
Mind
Statistics
Enough
... Moral Certainty Is Certainty Which Is Sufficient To Regulate Our Behaviour, Or Which Measures Up To The Certainty We Have On Matters Relating To The Conduct Of Life Which We Never Normally Doubt, Though We Know That It Is Possible, Absolutely Speaking, That They May Be False.
Doubt
Behaviour
May
He Who Hid Well, Lived Well.
Wells
Bad Books Engender Bad Habits, But Bad Habits Engender Good Books.
Book
Good Book
Habit
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.
Life
World
Might
Thus Each Truth Discovered Was A Rule Available In The Discovery Of Subsequent Ones.
Discovery
Statistics
Available
How Do We Know That Anything Really Exists, That Anything Is Really The Way It Seems Ot Us Through Our Senses?
Way
Senses
Knows
And As It Is The Most Generous Souls Who Have Most Gratitude, It Is Those Who Have Most Pride, And Who Are Most Base And Infirm, Who Most Allow Themselves To Be Carried Away By Anger And Hatred.
Gratitude
Pride
Hatred
If I Go For The Alternative Which Is False, Then Obviously I Shall Be In Error; If I Take The Other Side, Then It Is By... Chance That I Arrive At The Truth, And I Shall Still Be At Fault.... In This Incorrect Use Of Free Will May Be Found The Privation Which Constitutes The Essence Of Error.
Essence
Errors
May
Neither The True Nor The False Roots Are Always Real; Sometimes They Are Imaginary; That Is, While We Can Always Imagine As Many Roots For Each Equation As I Have Assigned, Yet There Is Not Always A Definite Quantity Corresponding To Each Root We Have Imagined.
Real
Roots
Ontology
... Regard This Body As A Machine Which, Having Been Made By The Hand Of God, Is Incomparably Better Ordered Than Any Machine That Can Be Devised By Man, And Contains In Itself Movements More Wonderful Than Those In Any Machine. ... It Is For All Practical Purposes Impossible For A Machine To Have Enough Organs To Make It Act In All The Contingencies Of Life In The Way In Which Our Reason Makes Us Act.
Men
Hands
Purpose
Even Those Who Have The Weakest Souls Could Acquire Absolute Mastery Over All Their Passions If We Employed Sufficient Ingenuity In Training And Guiding Them.
Passion
Soul
Training
How Can You Be Certain That Your Whole Life Is Not A Dream?
Dream
Life Is
Certain
[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.
Science
Men
Intelligent
I Hope That Posterity Will Judge Me Kindly, Not Only As To The Things Which I Have Explained, But Also To Those Which I Have Intentionally Omitted So As To Leave To Others The Pleasure Of Discovery.
Math
Science
Discovery
It Is Possible That I Am Dreaming Right Now And That All Of My Perceptions Are False.
Dream
Perception
Right Now
Whatever I Have Up Till Now Accepted As Most True And Assured I Have Gotten Either From The Senses Or Through The Senses. But From Time To Time I Have Found That The Senses Deceive, And It Is Prudent Never To Trust Completely Those Who Have Deceived Us Even Once.
Deceived Us
Prudent
Deceiving
Be That As It May, There Is Fixed In My Mind A Certain Opinion Of Long Standing, Namely That There Exists A God Who Is Able To Do Anything And By Whom I, Such As I Am, Have Been Created. How Do I Know That He Did Not Bring It About That There Is No Earth At All, No Heavens, No Extended Thing, No Shape, No Size, No Place, And Yet Bringing It About That All These Things Appear To Me To Exist Precisely As They Do Now?
Long
Heaven
Mind
The Principal Use Of Prudence, Of Self-control, Is That It Teaches Us To Be Masters Of Our Passions, And To So Control And Guide Them That The Evils Which They Cause Are Quite Bearable, And That We Even Derive Joy From Them All.
Anger
Passion
Self
It Is To The Body Alone That We Should Attribute Everything That Can Be Observed In Us To Oppose Our Reason.
Body
Reason
Should
It Is Not Enough To Have A Good Mind. The Main Thing Is To Use It Well.
Inspirational
Education
Teaching
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