Tao Te Ching

“Descartes is usually considered the founder of modern philosophy, and, I think, rightly. He is the first man of high philosophic capacity whose outlook is profoundly affected by the new physics and astronomy... he does not accept foundations laid by predecessors, but endeavors to construct a complete philosophic edifice de novo. This had not happened since Aristotle... There is a freshness about his work that is not to be found in any eminent previous philosopher since Plato... Descartes writes, not as a teacher, but as a discoverer and explorer”

— Bertrand Russell 1872 – 1970 CE
“20th century Voltaire”
from History of Western Philosophy