When I turn my mind’s eye upon myself, I understand that I am a thing which is incomplete and dependent on another and which aspires without limit to ever greater and better things…

There is nothing more ancient than the truth.

[…] the diversity of our opinions, consequently, does not arise from some being endowed with a larger share of reason than others, but solely from this, that we conduct our thoughts along different ways, and...

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

Il est bon de savoir quelque chose des moeurs de divers peuples, afin de juger des notres plus sainement et que nous ne pensions pas que tout ce qui est contre nos modes soit ridicule...

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

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...

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.

philosophes qui ont pu autrefois se soustraire de l’empire de la fortune, et, malgré les douleurs et la pauvreté, disputer de la félicité avec leurs dieux. Car s’occupant sans cesse à considérer les bornes qui...

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,...

The reading of all good books is like conversation with the finest men of past centuries.

entre plusieurs opinions également reçues, je ne choisissais que les plus modérées, tant à cause que ce sont toujours les plus commodes pour la pratique, et vraisemblablement les meilleures, tous excès ayant coutume d’être mauvais,...

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

La lecture de tous les bons livres est comme une conversation avec les plus honnêtes gens des siècles passés.

And, in fine, of false sciences I thought I knew the worth sufficiently to escape being deceived by the professions of an alchemist, the predictions of an astrologer, the impostures of a magician, or by...

I desire to live in peace and to continue the life I have begun under the motto ‘to live well you must live unseen

Reading good books is like engaging in conversation with the most cultivated minds of past centuries who had composed them, or rather, taking part in a well-conducted dialogue in which such minds reveal to us...

With me, everything turns into mathematics.

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

But in my opinion, all things in nature occur mathematically.

[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...

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.

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

Nothing is more fairly distributed than common sense: no one thinks he needs more of it than he already has.

although we very clearly see the sun, we ought not therefore to determine that it is only of the size which our sense of sight presents; and we may very distinctly imagine the head of...

It is not enough to have a good mind. The main thing is to use it well.

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

Common sense is the best distributed commodity in the world, for every man is convinced that he is well supplied with it.

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...

Cogito ergo sum. (I think, therefore I am.)

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.

In order to seek truth, it is necessary once in the course of our life to doubt, as far as possible, of all things.

I revered our theology, and aspired as much as any one to reach heaven: but being given assuredly to understand that the way is not less open to the most ignorant than to the most...

Whence then come my errors? They come from the sole fact that since the will is much wider in its range and compass than the understanding, I do not restrain it within the same bounds,...

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...

c’est une vérité très certaine que, lorsqu’il n’est pas en notre pouvoir de discerner les plus vraies opinions, nous devons suivre les plus probablespartie 3, para 3)

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