Discourse on the Method, part 2, ¶ 3-1

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René Descartes

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Smokey Point, Washington

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Discourse on the Method (Veitch translation)

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I have never contemplated anything higher than the reformation of my own opinions, and basing them on a foundation wholly my own.

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Then if there are any imperfections in the constitutions of states, (and that many such exist the diversity of constitutions is alone sufficient to assure us,) custom has without doubt materially smoothed their inconveniencies, and has even managed to steer altogether clear of, or insensibly corrected a number which sagacity could not have provided against with equal effect; and, in fine, the defects are almost always more tolerable than the change necessary for their removal; in the same manner that highways which wind among mountains, by being much frequented, become gradually so smooth and commodious, that it is much better to follow them than to seek a straighter path by climbing over the tops of rocks and descending to the bottoms of precipices.