Rene Descartes Quotes

I know nothing except the fact of my ignorance.

To know yet to think that one does not know is best; Not to know yet to think that one knows will lead to difficulty.

The learned man knows that he is ignorant.

Doubt grows with knowledge.

I know that I am intelligent, because I know that I know nothing.

Question everything. Learn something. Answer nothing.

There is a cleansing humility about doubt.

In philosophy you're never 100% sure. You're always undermining what you think you know. That's always been my philosophy and my intellectual ethos.

Doubt is often the beginning of wisdom.

Doubt is the vestibule through which all must pass before they can enter into the temple of wisdom.

I'm not quite pompous enough to think of myself as an educator or a man capable of definitive refutation of falsehoods.

I am a humble but very earnest seeker after truth.

I've reached the age of self-knowledge, so I don't know anything. People who claim that they know something are responsible for most of the fuss in the world.

The key to wisdom is this - constant and frequent questioning, for by doubting we are led to question and by questioning we arrive at the truth.

The stupidity of people comes from having an answer for everything. The wisdom of the novel comes from having a question for everything.

Who knows most, doubts most.

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

Constant and frequent questioning is the first key to wisdom … For through doubting we are led to inquire, and by inquiry we perceive the truth.

To be conscious that you are ignorant is a great step to knowledge.

We'd all like to be certain of what we know, but I think the most important question is to ask yourself do you really know what you know?

Skepticism may undermine beliefs, but never belief.

My wish for you... is that your skeptic-eclectic brain be flooded with the light of truth.

Unless you have the courage to doubt you will never come to know the truth.

The stupidity of people comes from having an answer for everything. The wisdom of the novel comes from having a question for everything. The novelist teaches the reader to comprehend the world as a question. There is wisdom and tolerance in that attitude. In a world built on sacrosanct certainties the novel is dead.

The minute we begin to think we have all the answers, we forget the questions.