Painted portrait of Descartes with dark shoulder-length hair and moustache, in black with a white collar, against a dusk ultramarine ground

Portraits · Philosophers & essayists · VIII of XII

René Descartes

1596–1650 · Philosopher

For to be possessed of a vigorous mind is not enough; the prime requisite is rightly to apply it.
Car ce n'est pas assez d'avoir l'esprit bon, mais le principal est de l'appliquer bien.
René Descartes · Discourse on Method, 1637

Read it in the source →

René Descartes wrote this near the start of his Discourse on Method, published in French in 1637. Good sense, he begins, is the most evenly shared thing in the world; we differ not in how much we have, but in how we use it.

Discourse on Method (Discours de la méthode), Part I. A Discourse on Method, tr. John Veitch (1850), Everyman's Library no. 570 (London: Dent; New York: Dutton, 1912), p. 3; French from Project Gutenberg #13846.

The originals

Oil sketch of Descartes with shoulder-length dark hair, a moustache and a white collar — **The likeness**PAINTED BY FRANS HALS · 1649Our portrait is painted after it.Public domain (oil sketch from life, Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen, DEP7; Hals died 1666; PD-Art).

The title page of Discours de la méthode, 1637, followed by La Dioptrique, Les Météores and La Géométrie — **Discourse on Method, 1637**The first edition, Leiden, 1637, published without his name. The Discourse was the preface to three essays: on optics, on meteorology and on geometry.Discours de la méthode, first edition (Leiden: Ian Maire, 1637), title page. Bibliothèque nationale de France (Gallica), public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.