Date: 1641

"I am not that structure of limbs which is called a human body. I am not even some thin vapour which permeates the limbs - a wind, fire, air, breath, or whatever I depict in my imagination; for these are things which I have supposed to be nothing."

— Descartes, René (1596-1650)

Date: 1641

"But I see what it is: my mind enjoys wandering off and will not yet submit to being restrained within the bounds of truth. Very well then; just this once let us give it a completely free rein, so that after a while, when it is time to tighten the reins, it may more readily submit to being curbed."

— Descartes, René (1596-1650)

Date: 1641

"And whenever my preconceived belief in the supreme power of God comes to mind, I cannot but admit that it would be easy for him, if he so desired, to bring it about that I go wrong even in those matters which I think I see utterly clearly with my mind's eye."

— Descartes, René (1596-1650)

Date: 1641

"Now admittedly, it is not necessary that I ever light upon any thought of God; but whenever I do choose to think of the first and supreme being, and bring forth the idea of God from the treasure house of my mind as it were, it is necessary that I attribute all perfections to him, even if I do no...

— Descartes, René (1596-1650)

Date: 1641

"As I have just used it, 'nature' is simply a label which depends on my thought; it is quite extraneous to the things to which it is applied, and depends simply on my comparison between the idea of a sick man and a badly-made clock, and the idea of a healthy man and a well-made clock."

— Descartes, René (1596-1650)

Date: 1641

"Yet a clock constructed with wheels and weights observes all the laws of its nature just as closely when it is badly made and tells the wrong time as when it completely fulfils the wishes of the clockmaker. In the same way, I might consider the body of a man as a kind of machine equipped with an...

— Descartes, René (1596-1650)

Date: 1641

The common view is that the mind is like "a wind or similar body"

— Descartes, René (1596-1650)

Date: 1641

The mind is a craftsman, the body his tool

— Descartes, René (1596-1650)

Date: 1641

Gravity is coexistence with a heavy body in the same way that the mind is coextensive with the body

— Descartes, René (1596-1650)

Date: 1641

The "I" is not present in the body as a sailor is in a ship but is joined and intermingled with it

— Descartes, René (1596-1650)