...it is certain that I am really distinct from my body, and can exist without it.

Whatever I have up till now accepted as most true and assured I have gotten either from the senses or through the senses. But from time to time I have found that the senses deceive, and it is prudent never to trust completely those who have deceived us even once.

For each of us there is a set limit to our intellectual powers which we cannot pass.

It is to the body alone that we should attribute everything that can be observed in us to oppose our reason.

Common sense is the most widely shared commodity in the world, for every man is convinced that he is well supplied with it.

It is contrary to reasoning to say that there is a vacuum or space in which there is absolutely nothing.

By 'God', I understand, a substance which is infinite, independent, supremely intelligent, supremely powerful, and which created both myself and everything else [...] that exists. All these attributes are such that, the more carefully I concentrate on them, the less possible it seems that they could have originated from me alone. So, from what has been said it must be concluded that God necessarily exists.