Omnia Apud Me Mathematica Fiunt.

Archimedes, That He Might Transport The Entire Globe ... Demanded Only A Point That Was Firm And Immovable; So Also, I Shall Be Entitled To Entertain The Highest Expectations, If I Am Fortunate Enough To Discover Only One Thing That Is Certain And Indubitable.

Because Reason...is The Only Thing That Makes Us Men, And Distinguishes Us From The Beasts, I Would Prefer To Believe That It Exists, In Its Entirety, In Each Of Us.

Some Years Ago I Was Struck By The Large Number Of Falsehoods That I Had Accepted As True In My Childhood, And By The Highly Doubtful Nature Of The Whole Edifice That I Had Subsequently Based On Them. I Realized That It Was Necessary, Once In The Course Of My Life, To Demolish Everything Completely And Start Again Right From The Foundations If I Wanted To Establish Anything At All In The Sciences That Was Stable And Likely To Last.

On The One Hand I Have A Clear And Distinct Idea Of Myself, In So Far As I Am A Thinking, Non-extended Thing; And On The Other Hand I Have A Distinct Idea Of Body, In So Far A This Is Simply An Extended, Non-thinking Thing. And, Accordingly, It Is Certain That I Am Really Distinct From My Body, And Exist Without It.

It Is Contrary To Reasoning To Say That There Is A Vacuum Or Space In Which There Is Absolutely Nothing.