Rene Descartes

Perfect numbers like perfect men are very rare.

A state is better governed which has few laws, and those laws strictly observed.

The two operations of our understanding, intuition and deduction, on which alone we have said we must rely in the acquisition of knowledge.

When it is not in our power to follow what is true, we ought to follow what is most probable.

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

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

The senses deceive from time to time, and it is prudent never to trust wholly those who have deceived us even once.

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

I am accustomed to sleep and in my dreams to imagine the same things that lunatics imagine when awake.

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.

I think therefore I am.

Illusory joy is often worth more than genuine sorrow.