Rene Descartes — "To conquer myself rather than fortune, and to change my desires rather than the …"

"The greatest good is to live according to the dictates of right reason."

"The long chains of simple and easy reasonings by means of which geometers are accustomed to reach the conclusions of their most difficult demonstrations, had led me to imagine that all things, the kno…"

"I have long ago observed that in order to study the truth, it is necessary once in the course of our life to demolish everything completely and start again from the foundations."

"I entirely abandoned the study of letters, resolving to seek no other science than that which could be found in myself, or at least in the great book of the world."

"The will, as far as it is considered formally in itself, is one of the chief perfections of man."