Q0330

René Descartes

A verified English rendering from the curated archive.

English

I am, I exist—whenever it is uttered by me, or conceived in the mind, it is necessarily true.
Thinker René Descartes
School Rationalism
Source Meditations on First Philosophy II
Theme Existence
Another quotation More from this thinker

Source context

This English passage is associated with Meditations on First Philosophy II, within the tradition of Rationalism. The wording below is a verified rendering prepared for careful reading rather than a claim of unique translation authority.

A short reading

Read in the register of existence, the sentence asks the reader to test an assumption rather than to collect a slogan. In René Descartes's wider work, similar claims are usually offered as prompts for judgment: what would have to be true for the sentence to hold, and what would follow if it did?

How to cite this quotation

APA: René Descartes. (n.d.). I am, I exist—whenever it is uttered by me, or conceived in the mind, it is necessarily true. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0330

MLA: René Descartes. “I am, I exist—whenever it is uttered by….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0330.

Chicago: René Descartes. “I am, I exist—whenever it is uttered by….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0330.

Same thinker

More from René Descartes

  1. I think, therefore I am.
  2. Once in a lifetime, everything must be doubted.
  3. The things we conceive very clearly and very distinctly are all true.
  4. Good sense is the best distributed thing in the world.
  5. to change my desires rather than the order of the world

All quotations by René Descartes

Same theme

More on existence

  1. Marry, and you will regret it; do not marry, and you will also regret it.
  2. For a conscious being, to exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly.
  3. Man is always more than he knows of himself.
  4. Love is the only sane and satisfactory answer to the problem of human existence.
  5. The self is a relation that relates itself to itself.

Browse the existence theme