The reading of all good books is like a conversation with the finest minds of past centuries.
Rene DescartesRead
The chief cause of human errors is to be found in the prejudices picked up in childhood.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Human errors often stem from biases formed during childhood.
Rene Descartes emphasizes the profound impact that early prejudices have on human thought and behavior. He suggests that the errors people make in judgment and reasoning can frequently be traced back to the biases and misconceptions they acquired during their formative years, highlighting the importance of critical thinking and self-awareness in overcoming these early influences.
Themes
PrejudicesChildhoodHuman ErrorsBiasJudgment
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about upbringing, you can use this quote to highlight the influence of early experiences.
More from Rene Descartes
All quotes βIf we possessed a thorough knowledge of all the parts of the seed of any animal (e.g. man), we could from that alone, be reasons entirely mathematical and certain, deduce the whole conformation and figure of each of its members, and, conversely if we knew several peculiarities of this conformation, we would from those deduce the nature of its seed.
Rene DescartesRead
Mathematics is a more powerful instrument of knowledge than any other that has been bequeathed to us by human agency.
Rene DescartesRead
Before examining this more carefully and investigating its consequences, I want to dwell for a moment in the contemplation of God, to ponder His attributes in me, to see, admire, and adore the beauty of His boundless light, insofar as my clouded insight allows. Believing that the supreme happiness of the other life consists wholly of the contemplation of divine greatness, I now find that through less perfect contemplation of the same sort I can gain the greatest joy available in this life.
Rene DescartesRead
I am accustomed to sleep and in my dreams to imagine the same things that lunatics imagine when awake.
Rene DescartesRead
The greatest minds are capable of the greatest vices as well as of the greatest virtues.
Rene DescartesRead
Similar quotes
If virtue promises happiness, prosperity and peace, then progress in virtue is progress in each of these for to whatever point the perfection of anything brings us, progress is always an approach toward it.
EpictetusRead
Dear young people, always be missionaries of the Gospel, every day and in every place.
Pope FrancisRead
Philosophy can't build bridges, but can encourage people to cross them.
Paulo CoelhoRead
In the morning a man walks with his whole body; in the evening, only with his legs.
Ralph Waldo EmersonRead
If there were no bad people, there would be no good lawyers.
Charles DickensRead
Let's build a country of opportunities, where everybody is equal before the law and where the rules of the game are honest and transparent, and the same for everyone.
Volodymyr ZelenskyRead