Doubt Is The Origin Of

Good Sense Is The Most Equitably Distributed Of All Things Because No Matter How Much Or Little A Person Has, Everyone Feels So Abundantly Provided With Good Sense That He Feels No Desire For More Than He Already Possesses.

If 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.

Everybody Thinks Himself So Well Supplied With Common Sense That Even Those Most Difficult To Please. . . Never Desire More Of It Than They Already Have.

These Long Chains Of Perfectly Simple And Easy Reasonings By Means Of Which Geometers Are Accustomed To Carry Out Their Most Difficult Demonstrations Had Led Me To Fancy That Everything That Can Fall Under Human Knowledge Forms A Similar Sequence; And That So Long As We Avoid Accepting As True What Is Not So, And Always Preserve The Right Order Of Deduction Of One Thing From Another, There Can Be Nothing Too Remote To Be Reached In The End, Or To Well Hidden To Be Discovered.

This Result Could Have Been Achieved Either By His [god] Endowing My Intellect With A Clear And Distinct Perception Of Everything About Which I Would Ever Deliberate, Or Simply By Impressing The Following Rule So Firmly Upon My Memory That I Could Never Forget It: I Should Never Judge Anything That I Do Not Clearly And Distinctly Understand.