Rene Descartes Quotes

In practical life we are compelled to follow what is most probable ; in speculative thought we are compelled to follow truth. A man would perish of hunger and thirst, if he refused to eat or drink, till he had obtained positive proof that food and drink would be good for him. But in philosophic reflection this is not so. On the contrary, we must take care not to admit as true anything, which is only probable. For when one falsity has been let in, infinite others follow.

I believe only in the mathematics.

Ah! why, ye Gods, should two and two make four?

There are no sects in geometry.

Even the creative things feel mathematic, almost.

The same principles which at first view lead to skepticism, pursued to a certain point, bring men back to common sense.

The nice thing about doing a crossword puzzle is, you know there is a solution.

Math is sometimes called the science of patterns.

Mathematics is the music of reason.

When something is beautiful in math, everything is just perfectly lined up, and you see through sheer thought that something really beautiful can take place.

I like mathematics because it is not human and has nothing particular to do with this planet or with the whole accidental universe - because, like Spinoza's God, it won't love us in return.

Arithmetic is where the answer is right and everything is nice and you can look out of the window and see the blue sky - or the answer is wrong and you have to start over and try again and see how it comes out this time.

Mathematics takes us into the region of absolute necessity, to which not only the actual word, but every possible word, must conform.

We must never assume that which is incapable of proof.

Order is a necessary condition for anything the human mind is to understand.

Logic must look after itself. In a certain sense, we cannot make mistakes in logic.

When philosophic reason is clear and certain by intuition or necessary induction, no subsequent revelation supported by prophecies or miracles can supersede it.

Intellectuals cannot tolerate the chance event, the unintelligible: they have a nostalgia for the absolute, for a universally comprehensive scheme.

Logic is the art of going wrong with confidence.

What is rational is actual and what is actual is rational

The world looks like a multiplication-table, or a mathematical equation, which, turn it how you will, balances itself.

Math is the only place where truth and beauty mean the same thing.

God is a geometrician.

The truth shall set you free. When you hear the truth, it sets you free. So mathematics is truth. It adds up. There's no error. Only time there's an error is when man miscalculates his own problems or his own equations.

If a book were written all in numbers, it would be true. It would be just. Nothing said in words ever came out quite even. Things in words got twisted and ran together, instead of staying straight and fitting together. But underneath the words, at the center, like the center of the Square, it all came out even. Everything could change, yet nothing would be lost. If you saw the numbers you could see that, the balance, the pattern. You saw the foundations of the world. And they were solid.