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If you would be a real seeker after truth, you must at least once in your life doubt, as far as possible, all things.

— René Descartes

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Truth

More quotes by René Descartes

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

Principles of Philosophy (1644)

I was not, thank heaven, in a condition which compelled me to make merchandise of Science for the bettering of my fortune.

I suppose the body to be nothing but a statue or machine made of earth, which God forms with the explicit intention of making it as much as possible like us.

Le Homme (The Treatise on Man) (1662)

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

Key Philosophical Writings (1997)

Study to sever pleasure from vice.

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You have to start with the truth. The truth is the only way that we can get anywhere. Because any decision-making that is based upon lies or ignorance can't lead to a good conclusion.

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False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil.

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I believe in evil. It is the property of all those who are certain of truth. Despair and fanaticism are only differing manifestations of evil.

Edward Teller

Wars produce many stories of fiction, some of which are told until they are believed to be true.

Ulysses S. Grant Personal Memoirs of General U. S. Grant (1885)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: René Descartes (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.