Then
without doubt I exist also if he deceives me, and let him
deceive me as much as he will, he can never cause me to be
nothing so long as I think that I am something. So that after
having reflected well and carefully examined all things, we
must come to the definite conclusion that this proposition: I
am, I exist, is necessarily true each time that I pronounce
it, or that I mentally conceive it.
But I do not yet know clearly enough what I am, I who am
certain that I am; and hence I must be careful to see that I
do not imprudently take some other object in place of myself,
and thus that I do not go astray in respect of this knowledge
that I hold to be the most certain and most evident of all
that I have formerly learned. That is why I shall now
consider anew what I believed myself to be before I embarked
upon these last reflections; and of my former opinions I shall
withdraw all that might even in a small degree be invalidated
by the reasons which I have just brought forward, in order
that there may be nothing at all left beyond what is
absolutely certain and indubitable.
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