1637: What Descartes Said

"From my childhood I lived in a world of books,...taught that by their help I could gain a clear and assured understanding of everything useful in life...But as soon as I had finished the course of studies which usually admits one to the ranks of the learned,...I found myself so saddled with doubts and errors that I seemed to have gained nothing in trying to educate myself unless it was to discover more and more how fully ignorant I was."