This is the opening thesis of Descartes’ Discourse on the Method (Discours de la méthode, 1637), Part One. The French original reads “ce n’est pas assez d’avoir l’esprit bon, mais le principal est de l’appliquer bien.” The popular English wording is a genuine translation of Descartes’ own words — nearly verbatim the Cottingham & Stoothoff rendering, with “use it well” a common softening of their “apply it well.”
“It is not enough to have a good mind; the main thing is to use it well” It is not enough to have a good mind; the main thing is to use it well. —René Descartes, Discourse on the Method (1637)
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Provenance
The source
Work
Discourse on the Method (Discours de la méthode)
Section
Part One (Première partie), opening pages
First published
1637, Leiden (anonymously)
Translation
Popular wording closest to Cottingham & Stoothoff (1985); “use it well” a common variant of their “apply it well”
Good sense is the best distributed thing in the world … For it is not enough to have a good mind; the main thing is to use it well. The greatest souls are capable of the greatest vices as well as the greatest virtues.
Modern English rendering of the opening of Part One. Descartes’ French: “Car ce n’est pas assez d’avoir l’esprit bon, mais le principal est de l’appliquer bien.”
The line opens Part One of Descartes’ Discourse on the Method (1637); it follows the famous claim that “good sense is the most evenly shared thing in the world.” See the full text on Project Gutenberg.
Wikiquote pairs the popular English wording with the original French, “ce n’est pas assez d’avoir l’esprit bon …”
WIST traces the wording across translations — Newcombe (1649), Veitch (1901), Haldane & Ross (1911) and Cottingham & Stoothoff (1985) — showing “use it well” as a variant of the 1985 “apply it well.”
Descartes’ French original (1637) and the older English translations (Newcombe 1649, Veitch 1901, Haldane & Ross 1911) are all in the public domain. But this exact popular wording — “a good mind … use it well” — matches none of the pre-1931 renderings; it tracks the copyrighted 1985 Cambridge translation by Cottingham & Stoothoff, so we treat the specific modern phrasing as in-copyright. The idea and the French words themselves are freely usable.
Context
Why it matters
Descartes opens the Discourse with a deliberately democratic claim: “good sense” — the power to judge truly — is the most evenly shared thing in the world; nobody wishes for more of it than they have. The famous line follows immediately as the twist: if everyone already has reason, then talent is not what separates the wise from the foolish.
What separates them, Descartes argues, is method — how well the mind is applied. That single move sets up the whole book, which is his account of the rules he adopted to “conduct his reason” well. The quote is not a stray aphorism; it is the hinge of his argument.
Everyone has reason; the question is whether you use it well.
The translation wrinkle
Older public-domain translations render the line differently: Veitch (1901) has “to be possessed of a vigorous mind is not enough; the prime requisite is rightly to apply it,” and Haldane & Ross (1911) “to be possessed of good mental powers is not sufficient; the principal matter is to apply them well.” The now-ubiquitous “a good mind … use it well” is a smoother modern phrasing, closest to the 1985 Cambridge translation.
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1596–1650 · French philosopher & mathematician, the 'father of modern philosophy'
René Descartes (1596–1650) was a French philosopher, mathematician and scientist whose Discourse on the Method (1637) and Meditations (1641) reoriented Western thought around systematic doubt and reason. He is remembered for “Cogito, ergo sum” (I think, therefore I am) and for founding analytic geometry. This line comes from the very first pages of the Discourse, where he argues that reason is shared by all — what divides people is the method by which they use it.
For writers & researchers
Cite this
Primary source — Chicago
René Descartes, Discourse on the Method, Part One (originally Discours de la méthode, Leiden, 1637); popular English wording after John Cottingham and Robert Stoothoff, trans., The Philosophical Writings of Descartes, vol. 1 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985). Original French: “Car ce n’est pas assez d’avoir l’esprit bon, mais le principal est de l’appliquer bien.”
MLA (9th ed.)
Descartes, René. The Philosophical Writings of Descartes, vol. 1, translated by John Cottingham and Robert Stoothoff, Cambridge University Press, 1985.
APA (7th ed.)
Descartes, R. (1985). The philosophical writings of Descartes (Vol. 1) (J. Cottingham & R. Stoothoff, Trans.). Cambridge University Press. (Original work published 1637)
This verification page
Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘It is not enough to have a good mind; the main thing is to use it well’?” Last verified 16 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/it-is-not-enough-to-have-a-good-mind-the-main-thing-is-to