Truths are more likely to be discovered by one man than by a nation

I was convinced that our beliefs are based much more on custom and example than on any certain knowledge.

I did not imitate the skeptics who doubt only for doubting's sake, and pretend to be always undecided; on the contrary, my whole intention was to arrive at a certainty, and to dig away the drift and the sand until I reached the rock or the clay beneath.

Thus each truth discovered was a rule available in the discovery of subsequent ones.

What then is the source of my errors? They are owing simply to the fact that, since the will extends further than the intellect, I do not contain the will within the same boundaries; rather, I also extend it to things I do not understand. Because the will is indifferent in regard to such matters, it easily turns away from the true and the good; and in this way I am deceived and I sin.

To live without philosophizing is in truth the same as keeping the eyes closed without attempting to open them.

I know that I exist; the question is, What is this 'I' that 'I' know.