Q0443

René Descartes

A verified English rendering from the curated archive.

English

to change my desires rather than the order of the world
Thinker René Descartes
School Rationalism
Source Discourse on the Method, Part III
Theme Desire
Another quotation More from this thinker

Source context

This English passage is associated with Discourse on the Method, Part III, 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 desire, 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.). to change my desires rather than the order of the world In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0443

MLA: René Descartes. “to change my desires rather than the order….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0443.

Chicago: René Descartes. “to change my desires rather than the order….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0443.

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. I am, I exist—whenever it is uttered by me, or conceived in the mind, it is necessarily true.

All quotations by René Descartes

Same theme

More on desire

  1. It is not things that disturb people, but their judgments about things.
  2. Do not seek for things to happen as you wish, but wish for things to happen as they do, and you will flow well.
  3. Nature's wealth has its bounds and is easy to procure; but the wealth of vain fancies recedes to an infinite distance.
  4. Wealth does not take away need — it kindles new wants.
  5. Heaven moves with vigor; the gentleman accordingly strengthens himself without cease.

Browse the desire theme