"When it is not in our power to follow what is true, we ought to follow what is most probable."

Truth

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Thematic Reflection

This quotation examines the core nature of Truth as articulated by Rene Descartes. Within historical and literary traditions, reflections on Truth provide actionable mental models, challenging individuals to evaluate personal ethics, self-discipline, and daily actions.

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About Rene Descartes

René Descartes was a French philosopher, mathematician, and scientist whose work was foundational to mathematics and modern philosophy. He connected the previously separate fields of geometry and algebra into analytic geometry and introduced a systematic method of inquiry that became influential in early modern philosophy. He made major contributions to epistemology and philosophy of mind as well as metaphysics, and influenced the development of modern science.

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More by Rene Descartes

"The reading of all good books is like a conversation with the finest minds of past centuries."

— Rene Descartes
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"The senses deceive from time to time, and it is prudent never to trust wholly those who have deceived us even once."

— Rene Descartes
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"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."

— Rene Descartes
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"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."

— Rene Descartes
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More about Truth

"We walk in circles, so limited by our own anxieties that we can no longer distinguish between true and false, between the gangster's whim and the purest ideal."

— Ingmar Bergman
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"I made decisions that I regret, and I took them as learning experiences... I'm human, not perfect, like anybody else."

— Queen Latifah
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"Golf is a day spent in a round of strenuous idleness."

— William Wordsworth
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"Since those who believe they need a hero/celebrity outnumber the actual heroes/celebrities, people feel safe and comfortably justified in numbers, committing egregious crimes in the name of the greater social ego. Ironically diminishing their own true hero-celebrity nature in the process."

— Lauryn Hill
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