Discourse on the Method, part 5, ¶ 2-1

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René Descartes

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Lu Zhi (painter) (Wikipedia) Lù Zhì, formerly romanized as Lu Chih (simplified Chinese: 陆治; traditional Chinese: 陸治; ca. 1496–1576), was a Chinese landscape painter, calligrapher, and poet during the Ming dynasty (1368–1644).

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Discourse on the Method (Veitch translation)

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It was my design to comprise in it all that, before I set myself to write it, I thought I knew of the nature of material objects.

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I have ever remained firm in my original resolution to suppose no other principle than that of which I have recently availed myself in demonstrating the existence of God and of the soul, and to accept as true nothing that did not appear to me more clear and certain than the demonstrations of the geometers had formerly appeared; and yet I venture to state that not only have I found means to satisfy myself in a short time on all the principal difficulties which are usually treated of in Philosophy, but I have also observed certain laws established in nature by God in such a manner, and of which he has impressed on our minds such notions, that after we have reflected sufficiently upon these, we cannot doubt that they are accurately observed in all that exists or takes place in the world: and farther, by considering the concatenation of these laws, it appears to me that I have discovered many truths more useful and more important than all I had before learned, or even had expected to learn.