I think; therefore I am
CulturalExample Sentences
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The French Enlightenment philosopher René Descartes famously observed that every self-aware being is able to declare, figuratively if not literally, the Latin statement "Cogito ergo sum" — that is, "I think therefore I am."
From Salon • Dec. 6, 2022
"I'm not your friend or anything / Damn, you think that you're the man / I think, therefore, I am," she sings in the chorus.
From Fox News • Nov. 12, 2020
René Descartes summed this up in his famous phrase: cogito ergo sum – I think, therefore I am.
From The Guardian • Jan. 6, 2018
Could Sir Isaac Newton's revelation about gravity after an apple fell on his head, and Descartes' observation that "I think, therefore I am", be called examples of autoethnography?
From BBC • May 9, 2017
I think, therefore I am a polar bear.
From "The Very, Very Far North" by Dan Bar-el
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.