René Descartes

Descartes never went by his first name René. Throughout his life he either said Poitevin or du Perron. In fact, when his mother passed away he inherited the family farm and began to refer to himself as the "Lord of Perron."                              

Descartes spent most of his life in hiding despite no one hunting him. He would keep his address secret and was often quoted with saying "Who lives well hidden, lives well." Experts attribute this to either a desire for privacy or an attempt to stay away from his family.                                                                           

Whenever Descartes finished a new book he would first send it to his toughest critics to get their feedback. He would then collect seven negative reviews and include them in the final version.                                                                             

At 51 years old Descartes traveled to meet with the up and coming scientist Blaise Pascal. The meeting started off well but it ended in a heated debate about the nature of vacuums. Descartes would later write about how Pascal had "too much vacuum in his head."                                                                            

Descartes would regularly sleep twelve hours a day from midnight to noon. Descartes believed that sleep was crucial to a healthy mind. Interestingly enough Descartes was forced to change his sleep schedule after moving to Sweden and twelve months later he died.                                                              

While serving in the Dutch military, Descartes had visions about math and philosophy while locked in an oven room. Descartes would later attribute these visions to the reason why he left the army and began to study math and philosophy.