Rene Descartes

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

“One cannot conceive anything so strange and so implausible that it has not already been said by one philosopher or another.”

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

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

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

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

“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.”

“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.”