Full Idea
After taking away what does not belong to the wax, let us see what is left: surely, it is nothing other than a thing that is extended, flexible and changeable.
Gist of Idea
If we remove surface qualities from wax, we have an extended, flexible, changeable thing
Source
René Descartes (Meditations [1641], (VII:30-1)), quoted by Robert Pasnau - Metaphysical Themes 1274-1671 08.2
Book Reference
Pasnau,Robert: 'Metaphysical Themes 1274-1671' [OUP 2011], p.138
A Reaction
Aristotle worried about nothing being left when you 'stripped' an object, so this could be seen as a positive contribution to scholastic philosophy. Why is the substrate 'flexible'? He talks elsewhere of taking the clothes off the wax and seeing it naked.