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[How does it happen that this man, so distressed at the death of his wife and his only son, or who has some great lawsuit which annoys him, is not at this moment sad, and that he seems so free from all painful and disquieting thoughts? We need not wonder; for a ball has been served him, and he must return it to his companion. He is occupied in catching it in its fall from the roof, to win a game. How can he think of his own affairs, pray, when he has this other matter in hand? Here is a care worthy of occupying this great soul, and taking away from him every other thought of the mind. This man, born to know the universe, to judge all causes, to govern a whole state, is altogether occupied and taken up with the business of catching a hare. By Blaise Pascal Son Sad Man Happen Distressed

How can anyone lose who chooses to become a Christian? If, when he dies, there turns out to be no God and his faith was in vain, he has lost nothing ... If, however, there is a God and a heaven and a hell. then he has gained heaven and his skeptical friends have lost everything ... By Blaise Pascal Christian God Lose Chooses Heaven

Custom creates the whole of equity, for the simple reason that it is accepted. By Blaise Pascal Custom Equity Accepted Creates Simple

Merely according to reason, nothing is just in itself, everything shifts with time. Custom is the whole of equity for the sole reason that it is accepted. By Blaise Pascal Time Reason Shifts Custom Accepted

Those who write against vanity want the glory of having written well, and their readers the glory of reading well, and I who write this have the same desire, as perhaps those who read this have also. By Blaise Pascal Glory Write Desire Vanity Written

Do you wish people to think well of you? Don't speak well of yourself. By Blaise Pascal People Speak

In order to enter into a real knowledge of your condition, consider it in this image: A man was cast by a tempest upon an unknown island, the inhabitants of which were in trouble to findtheir king, who was lost; and having a strong resemblance both in form and face to this king, he was taken for him, and acknowledged in this capacity by all the people. By Blaise Pascal King Condition Image Island Lost

When I consider the small span of my life absorbed in the eternity of all time, or the small part of space which I can touch or see engulfed by the infinite immensity of spaces that I know not and that know me not, I am frightened and astonished to see myself here instead of there ... now instead of then. By Blaise Pascal Small Time Space Spaces Span

Justice, might. - It is right that what is just should be obeyed; it is necessary that what is strongest should be obeyed. Justice without might is helpless; might without justice is tyrannical. Justice without might is gainsaid, because there are always offenders; might without justice is condemned. We must then combine justice and might, and for this end make what is just strong, or what is strong just.Justice is subject to dispute; might is easily recognised and is not disputed. So we cannot give might to justice, because might has gainsaid justice, and has declared that it is she herself who is just. And thus being unable to make what is just strong, we have made what is strong just. By Blaise Pascal Justice Strong Obeyed Make Gainsaid

We need not have the loftiest mind to understand that here is no lasting and real satisfaction, that our pleasures are only vanity, that our evils are infinite, and, lastly, that death, which threatens us every moment, must infallibly place us within a few years under the dreadful necessity of being forever either annihilated or unhappy. By Blaise Pascal Lastly Satisfaction Vanity Infinite Death

Why should I choose to divide my ethics into four rather than six? Why should I define virtue as four, or two, or one? Why as desist and resist rather than 'follow nature' or 'discharge your private business without injustice', like Plato, or anything else?'But,' you will say, 'there everything is summed up in a word. - 'Yes, but that is no good unless you explain it.' And when you come to explain it, as soon as you open up this precept which contains all the others, out they all come in the original confusion that you wanted to avoid. Thus when they are all enclosed in one they are concealed and useless, as if they were in a box, and they only come to light in their natural confusion. Nature has laid them down, without enclosing one inside another. By Blaise Pascal Choose Divide Ethics Explain Plato

Our soul is cast into a body, where it finds number, time, dimension. Thereupon it reasons, and calls this nature, necessity, and can believe nothing else.If there is a God, He is infinitely incomprehensible, since, having neither parts nor limits, He has no affinity to us. We are then incapable of knowing either what He is or if He is. This being so, who will dare to undertake the decision of the question? Not we, who have no affinity to Him. By Blaise Pascal Time Dimension Body Number Soul

Since [man's] true nature has been lost, anything can become his nature: similarly, true good being lost, anything can become his true good. By Blaise Pascal Man Similarly Lost True Good

Man's true nature being lost, everything becomes his nature; as, his true good being lost, everything becomes his good. By Blaise Pascal Lost Man True Nature Good

Let a man choose what condition he will, and let him accumulate around him all the goods and gratifications seemingly calculated to make him happy in it; if that man is left at any time without occupation or amusement, and reflects on what he is, the meagre, languid felicity of his present lot will not bear him up. He will turn necessarily to gloomy anticipations of the future; and unless his occupation calls him out of himself, he is inevitably wretched. By Blaise Pascal Man Amusement Meagre Languid Occupation

You are in the same manner surrounded with a small circle of persons ... full of desire. They demand of you the benefits of desire ... You are therefore properly the king of desire ... equalin this to the greatest kings of the earth ... It is desire that constitutes their power; that is, the possession of things that men covet. By Blaise Pascal Desire Persons Manner Surrounded Small

Eloquence is a painting of thought; and thus those who, after having painted it, add something more, make a picture instead of a portrait. By Blaise Pascal Eloquence Thought Add Make Portrait

We think very little of time present; we anticipate the future, as being too slow, and with a view to hasten it onward, we recall the past to stay it as too swiftly gone. We are so thoughtless, that we thus wander through the hours which are not here, regardless only of the moment that is actually our own. By Blaise Pascal Present Future Slow Onward Time

The world is a good judge of things, for it is in natural ignorance, which is man's true state. The sciences have two extremes which meet. The first is the pure natural ignorance in which all men find themselves at birth. The other extreme is that reached by great intellects, who, having run through all that men can know, find they know nothing, and come back again to that same ignorance from which they set out; but this is a learned ignorance which is conscious of itself. Those between the two, who have departed from natural ignorance and not been able to reach the other, have some smattering of this vain knowledge and pretend to be wise. These trouble the world and are bad judges of everything. The people and the wise constitute the world; these despise it, and are despised. They judge badly of everything, and the world judges rightly of them. By Blaise Pascal Ignorance World Natural Things State

The man who knows God but does not know his own misery, becomes proud. The man who knows his own misery but does not know God, ends in despair ... the knowledge of Jesus Christ constitutes the middle course because in him we find both God and our own misery. Jesus Christ is therefore a God whom we approach without pride, and before whom we humble ourselves without despair. By Blaise Pascal God Misery Man Christ Proud

If we dreamed the same thing every night, it would affect us much as the objects we see every day. And if a common workman were sure to dream every night for twelve hours that he was a king, I believe he would be almost as happy as a king who should dream every night for twelve hours on end that he was a common workman. By Blaise Pascal Night Day Common Twelve Dreamed

Hence it comes that men so much love noise and stir; hence it comes that the prison is so horrible a punishment; hence it comes that the pleasure of solitude is a thing incomprehensible. And it is in fact the greatest source of happiness in the condition of kings, that men try incessantly to divert them, and to procure for them all kinds of pleasures. By Blaise Pascal Stir Punishment Incomprehensible Men Love

Few friendships would survive if each one knew what his friend says of him behind his back By Blaise Pascal Back Friendships Survive Knew Friend

Two similar faces, neither of which alone causes laughter, use laughter when they are together, by their resemblance. By Blaise Pascal Faces Resemblance Laughter Similar

Kind words produce their own image in men's souls; and a beautiful image it is. They soothe and quiet and comfort the hearer. They shame him out of his sour, morose, unkind feelings. We have not yet begun to use kind words in such abundance as they ought to be used. By Blaise Pascal Image Souls Produce Men Beautiful

We must make good people wish that the Christian faith were true, and then show that it is. By Blaise Pascal Christian True Make Good People

Console-toi, tu ne me chercherais pas si tu ne m'avais trouve . Comfort yourself.You would not seek me if you had not found me. By Blaise Pascal Consoletoi Comfort Trouve Chercherais Pas

We never seek things for themselves, but for the search. By Blaise Pascal Search Seek Things

Man is only a reed, the weakest in nature, but he is a thinking reed. There is no need for the whole universe to take up arms to crush him: a vapour, a drop of water is enough to kill him. but even if the universe were to crush him, man would still be nobler than his slayer, because he knows that he is dying and the advantage the universe has over him. The universe knows none of this. By Blaise Pascal Reed Universe Man Nature Crush

It is natural for the mind to believe, and for the will to love; [47] so that, for want of true objects, they must attach themselves to false. By Blaise Pascal Love Objects False Natural Mind

The parts of the universe ... all are connected with each other in such a way that I think it to be impossible to understand any one without the whole. By Blaise Pascal Universe Parts Connected Impossible Understand

There are two types of mind ... the mathematical, and what might be called the intuitive. The former arrives at its views slowly, but they are firm and rigid; the latter is endowed with greater flexibility and applies itself simultaneously to the diverse lovable parts of that which it loves. By Blaise Pascal Mind Types Mathematical Intuitive Called

The mind must not be forced; artificial and constrained manners fill it with foolish presumption, through unnatural elevation and vain and ridiculous inflation, instead of solid andvigorous nutriment. By Blaise Pascal Forced Artificial Presumption Inflation Nutriment

We naturally believe we are more capable of reaching the centre of things than of embracing their circumference, and the visible extent of the world is visibly greater than we. But since we in our turn are greater than small things, we think we are more capable of mastering them, and yet it takes no less capacity to reach nothingness than the whole. In either case it takes an infinite capacity, and it seems to me that anyone who had understood the ultimate principles of things might also succeed in knowing infinity. One depends on the other, and one leads to the other. These extremes touch and join by going in opposite directions, and they meet in God and God alone. By Blaise Pascal Capable Things Greater Circumference Naturally

Necessity, that great refuge and excuse for human frailty, breaks through all law; and he is not to be accounted in fault whose crime is not the effect of choice, but force. By Blaise Pascal Necessity Frailty Breaks Law Choice

We sail within a vast sphere, ever drifting in uncertainty, driven from end to end. By Blaise Pascal Sphere Uncertainty Driven End Sail

All the troubles of life come upon us because we refuse to sit quietly for a while each day in our rooms. By Blaise Pascal Rooms Troubles Life Refuse Sit

God instituted prayer to communicate to creatures the dignity of causality. By Blaise Pascal God Causality Instituted Prayer Communicate

Vanity is so firmly anchored in man's heart that a soldier, a camp follower, a cook or a porter will boast and expect admirers, and even philosophers want them; those who write against them want to enjoy the prestige of having written well, those who read them want the prestige of having read them, and perhaps I who write this want the same thing. By Blaise Pascal Prestige Write Read Vanity Soldier

Anyone who does not see the vanity of the world is very vain himself. So who does not see it, apart from young people whose lives are all noise, diversions, and thoughts for the future?But take away their diversion and you will see them bored to extinction. Then they feel their nullity without recognizing it, for nothing could be more wretched than to be intolerably depressed as soon as one is reduced to introspection with no means of diversion. By Blaise Pascal Vanity World Vain Diversion Noise

Attachment to the same thought wearies and destroys the mind of man. Hence for the solidity and permanence of the pleasure of love, it is sometimes necessary not to know that we love; and this is not to be guilty of an infidelity, for we do not therefore love another; it is to regain strength in order to love the better. This happens without our thinking of it; the mind is borne hither of itself; nature wills it, commands it. It must however be confessed that this is a miserable consequence of human weakness, and that we should be happier of we were not forced to change of thought; but there is no remedy. By Blaise Pascal Love Attachment Man Mind Wearies

One must know oneself. If this does not serve to discover truth, it at least serves as a rule of life, and there is nothing better. By Blaise Pascal Oneself Truth Life Discover Rule

Man is but a reed, the weakest in nature, but he is a thinking reed. By Blaise Pascal Reed Man Nature Weakest Thinking

Amusement that is excessive and followed only for its own sake, allures and deceives us. By Blaise Pascal Amusement Sake Allures Excessive Deceives

Let man then contemplate the whole of nature in her full and grand majesty, and turn his vision from the low objects which surround him. Let him gaze on that brilliant light, set like an eternal lamp to illumine the universe; let the earth appear to him a point in comparison with the vast circle described by the sun; and let him wonder at the fact that this vast circle is itself but a very fine point in comparison with that described by the stars in their revolution round the firmament. But if our view be arrested there, let our imagination pass beyond; it will sooner exhaust the power of conception than nature that of supplying material for conception. The whole visible world is only an imperceptible atom in the ample bosom of nature. It is an infinite sphere, the center of which is everywhere, the circumference nowhere. In short it is the greatest sensible mark of the almighty power of God, that imagination loses itself in that thought. By Blaise Pascal Nature Comparison Majesty Point Vast

Let each of us examine his thoughts; he will find them wholly concerned with the past or the future. We almost never think of the present, and if we do think of it, it is only to see what light is throws on our plans for the future. The present is never our end. The past and the present are our means, the future alone our end. Thus we never actually live, but hope to live, and since we are always planning how to be happy, it is inevitable that we should never be so. By Blaise Pascal Future Present Thoughts End Examine

You see, if the height of the mercury [barometer] column is less on the top of a mountain than at the foot of it (as I have many reasons for believing, although everyone who has so far written about it is of the contrary opinion), it follows that the weight of the air must be the sole cause of the phenomenon, and not that abhorrence of a vacuum, since it is obvious that at the foot of the mountain there is more air to have weight than at the summit, and we cannot possibly say that the air at the foot of the mountain has a greater aversion to empty space than at the top. By Blaise Pascal Foot Mountain Air Top Weight

If a man is not made for God, why is he happy only in God? By Blaise Pascal God Man Made Happy

The true religion would have to teach greatness and wretchedness, inspire self-esteem and self-contempt, love and hate. By Blaise Pascal Wretchedness Inspire Selfcontempt Love Hate

We never keep to the present. We recall the past; we anticipate the future as if we found it too slow in coming and were trying to hurry it up, or we recall the past as if to stay its too rapid flight. We are so unwise that we wander about in times that do not belong to us, and do not think of the only one that does; so vain that we dream of times that are not and blindly flee the only one that is. The fact is the present usually hurts. By Blaise Pascal Recall Past Present Times Flight

If we must not act save on a certainty, we ought not to act on religion, for it is not certain. But how many things we do on an uncertainty, sea voyages, battles! By Blaise Pascal Act Certainty Religion Save Battles

We must learn our limits. We are all something, but none of us are everything. By Blaise Pascal Limits Learn

A man does not show his greatness by being at one extremity, but rather by touching both at once. By Blaise Pascal Extremity Man Show Greatness Touching

So imprudent are we that we wander in the times which are not ours, and do not think of the only one which belongs to us; and so idle are we that we dream of those times which are no more, and thoughtlessly overlook that which alone exists. By Blaise Pascal Times Exists Imprudent Wander Belongs

We do not rest satisfied with the present ... So imprudent we are that we wander in the times which are not ours and do not thinkof the only one which belongs to us; and so idle are we that we dream of those times which are no more and thoughtlessly overlook that which alone exists. For the present is generally painful to us. By Blaise Pascal Present Rest Satisfied Times Exists

There are some who speak well and write badly. For the place and the audience warm them, and draw from their minds more than they think of without that warmth. By Blaise Pascal Badly Speak Write Warmth Place

It is incomprehensible that God should exist, and it is incomprehensible that he should not exist. By Blaise Pascal Incomprehensible Exist God

It is of dangerous consequence to represent to man how near he is to the level of beasts, without showing him at the same time his greatness. It is likewise dangerous to let him see his greatness without his meanness. It is more dangerous yet to leave him ignorant of either; but very beneficial that he should be made sensible of both. By Blaise Pascal Greatness Dangerous Beasts Consequence Represent

Muhammad established a religion by putting his enemies to death; Jesus Christ by commanding his followers to lay down their lives. By Blaise Pascal Jesus Christ Muhammad Death Lives

All great amusements are dangerous to the Christian life; but among all those which the world has invented there is none more to be feared than the theater. It is a representation of the passions so natural and so delicate that it excites them and gives birth to them in our hearts, and, above all, to that of love. By Blaise Pascal Christian Life Theater Great Amusements

Either Christianity is true or it's false. If you bet that it's true, and you believe in God and submit to Him, then if it IS true, you've gained God, heaven, and everything else. If it's false, you've lost nothing, but you've had a good life marked by peace and the illusion that ultimately, everything makes sense. If you bet that Christianity is not true, and it's false, you've lost nothing. But if you bet that it's false, and it turns out to be true, you've lost everything and you get to spend eternity in hell. By Blaise Pascal False True God Christianity Bet

Without Jesus Christ man must be in vice and misery with Jesus Christ man is free from vice and misery in Him is all our virtue and all our happiness. Apart from Him there is but vice, misery, darkness, death, despair. By Blaise Pascal Christ Jesus Man Vice Misery

Thus passes away all man's life. Men seek rest in a struggle against difficulties; and when they have conquered these, rest becomes insufferable. For we think either of the misfortunes we have or of those which threaten us. By Blaise Pascal Life Passes Man Rest Men

Thus so wretched is man that he would weary even without any cause for weariness ... and so frivolous is he that, though full of a thousand reasons for weariness, the least thing, such as playing billiards or hitting a ball, is sufficient enough to amuse him. By Blaise Pascal Weariness Thing Ball Wretched Man

To speak freely of mathematics, I find it the highest exercise of the spirit; but at the same time I know that it is so useless that I make little distinction between a man who is only a mathematician and a common artisan. Also, I call it the most beautiful profession in the world; but it is only a profession; By Blaise Pascal Mathematics Spirit Artisan Speak Freely

Knowing God without knowing our wretchedness leads to pride. Knowing our wretchedness without knowing God leads to despair. Knowing Jesus Christ is the middle course, because in him we find both God and our wretchedness. By Blaise Pascal God Knowing Wretchedness Leads Pride

We make an idol of truth itself, for truth apart from charity is not God, but his image and an idol that we must not love or worship. By Blaise Pascal God Idol Worship Truth Make

Once that is clearly understood, I think that each of us can stay quietly in the state in which nature has placed him. since the middle station allotted to us is always far from the extremes, what does it matter if someone else has a slightly better understanding of things? If he has, and if he takes them a little further, is he not still infinitely remote from the goal? Is not our span of life equally infinitesimal in eternity, even if it is extended by ten years?In the perspective of all these infinites, all finites are equal and I see no reason to settle our imagination on one rather than another. Merely comparing ourselves with the finite is painful. By Blaise Pascal Understood Stay Quietly State Nature

It is good to be tired and wearied by the futile search after the true good, that we may stretch out our arms to the Redeemer. By Blaise Pascal Redeemer Good Tired Wearied Futile

It is not the length of years but a multitude of generations that makes things obscure. For truth is only perverted when men change. By Blaise Pascal Obscure Length Years Multitude Generations

Nature constantly begins the same things over again, years, days, hours, spaces too. And numbers run end to end, one after another. This makes something in a way infinite and eternal. It is not that any of this is really infinite and eternal, but these finite entities multiply infinitely. Thus only number, which multiplies them, seems to me to be infinite. By Blaise Pascal Years Days Hours Nature Spaces

Voluptuousness, like justice, is blind, but that is the only resemblance between them. By Blaise Pascal Voluptuousness Justice Blind Resemblance

Let us weigh up the gain and the loss involved in calling heads that God exists. Let us assess the two cases: if you win you win everything, if you lose you lose nothing. Do not hesitate then; wager that he does exist. By Blaise Pascal God Weigh Gain Loss Involved

I can readily conceive of a man without hands or feet; and I could conceive of him without a head, if experience had not taught me that by this he thinks, Thought then, is the essence of man, and without this we cannot conceive of him. By Blaise Pascal Conceive Thought Man Feet Head

Notwithstanding the sight of all our miseries, which press upon us and take us by the throat, we have an instinct which we cannot repress, and which lifts us up. By Blaise Pascal Notwithstanding Miseries Throat Repress Sight

Man is so made that if he is told often enough that he is a fool he believes it. By Blaise Pascal Man Made Told Fool

They would do better to say: "Our book," "Our commentary," "Our history," etc., because there is in them usually more of other people's than their own. By Blaise Pascal Etc Book Commentary History People

For the truth is always older than all the opinions men have held regarding it; and one should be ignoring the nature of truth if we imagined that the truth began at the time it came to be known. By Blaise Pascal Truth Older Opinions Men Held

One-half of life is admitted by us to be passed in sleep, in which, however, it may appear otherwise, we have no perception of truth, and all our feelings are delusions; who knows but the other half of life, in which we think we are awake, is a sleep also, but in some respects different from the other, and from which we wake when we, as we call it, sleep. As a man dreams often that he is dreaming, crowding one dreamy delusion on another. By Blaise Pascal Sleep Life Onehalf Truth Awake

The art of revolutionizing and overturning states is to undermine established customs, by going back to their origin, in order to mark their want of justice. By Blaise Pascal Customs Origin Justice Art Revolutionizing

By a peculiar prerogative, not only each individual is making daily advances in the sciences, and may make advances in morality (which is the science, by way of eminence, of living well and being happy), but all mankind together is making a continual progress in proportion as the universe grows older. So that the whole human race, during the course of so many ages, may be considered as one man who never ceases to live and learn. By Blaise Pascal Making Advances Sciences Science Prerogative

Man lives between the infinitely large and the infinitely small. By Blaise Pascal Infinitely Man Small Lives Large

If you want to be a real seeker of truth, you need to, at least once in your lifetime, doubt in, as much as it's possible, in everything. By Blaise Pascal Truth Lifetime Doubt Real Seeker

If you do not love too much, you do not love enough. By Blaise Pascal Love

Let us imagine a number of men in chains and all condemned to death, where some are killed each day in the sight of the others, and those who remain see their own fate in that of their fellows and wait their turn, looking at each other sorrowfully and without hope. It is an image of the condition of man. By Blaise Pascal Death Turn Hope Imagine Number

All of our miseries prove our greatness. They are the miseries of a dethroned monarch. By Blaise Pascal Greatness Miseries Prove Monarch Dethroned

Amusement allures and deceives us and leads us down imperceptibly in thoughtlessness to the grave By Blaise Pascal Amusement Grave Allures Deceives Leads

When we see an effect happen always in the same manner, we infer that it takes place by a natural necessity; as, for instance, that the sun will rise to morrow; but nature often deceives us, and will not submit to its own rules. By Blaise Pascal Manner Necessity Instance Morrow Rules

This is how the whole of our life slips by. We seek repose by battling against certain obstacles, and once they are overcome we find rest is unbearable because of the boredom it generates ... We can't imaging a condition that is pleasant without fun and noise. By Blaise Pascal Life Slips Obstacles Generates Noise

The exterior must be joined to the interior to obtain anything from God, that is to say, we must kneel, pray with the lips, and soon, in order that proud man, who would not submit himself to God, may be now subject to the creature. By Blaise Pascal God Kneel Pray Lips Man

Description of man: dependence, longing for independence, need. By Blaise Pascal Dependence Description Man Longing Independence

Do not be astonished to see simple people believing without argument. God makes them love him and hate themselves. He inclines their hearts to believe. We shall never believe, with an effective belief and faith, unless God inclines our hearts. By Blaise Pascal Argument God Astonished Simple People

Unless we know ourselves to be full of pride, ambition, concupiscence, weakness, wretchedness and unrighteousness, we are truly blind. And if someone knows all this and does not desire to be saved, what can be said of him? By Blaise Pascal Ambition Concupiscence Weakness Pride Wretchedness

If we do not know ourselves to be full of pride, ambition, lust, weakness, misery, and injustice, we are indeed blind. And if, knowing this, we do not desire deliverance, what can we say of a man ... ? By Blaise Pascal Ambition Lust Weakness Misery Pride

Do little things as if they were great, because of the majesty of the Lord Jesus Christ who dwells in thee. By Blaise Pascal Lord Jesus Christ Great Thee

We are so presumptuous that we wish to be known to all the world, even to those who come after us; and we are so vain that the esteem of five or six persons immediately around us is enough to amuse and satisfy us. By Blaise Pascal World Presumptuous Vain Esteem Persons

Le nez de Cle opa" tre: s'il e u" t e te plus court, toute la face de la terre aurait change . Cleopatra'snose: if it had beenshorter the whole face of the earth would have been different. By Blaise Pascal Cleopatrasnose Tre Cle Opa Sil

For, after all, what is man in nature? ... a middle point between all and nothing ... What else can he do, then, but perceive some semblance of the middle of things, eternally hopeless of knowing either their principles or their end? All things have come out of nothingness and are carried onwards to infinity. Who can follow these astonishing processes? The author of these wonders understands them: no one else can. By Blaise Pascal Nature Man Middle Things Eternally

Just as I do not know where I came from, so I do not know where I am going. All I know is that when I leave this world I shall fall forever into oblivion, or into the hands of an angry God, without knowing which of the two will be my lot for eternity. Such is my state of mind, full of weakness and uncertainty. The only conclusion I can draw from all this is that I must pass my days without a thought of trying to find out what is going to happen to me. By Blaise Pascal God Oblivion Eternity Leave World

The Stoics say, " Retire within yourselves; it is there you will find your rest." And that is not true. Others say, "Go out of yourselves; seek happiness in amusement." And this is not true. Illness comes. Happiness is neither without us nor within us. It is in God, both without us and within us. By Blaise Pascal Retire Stoics Rest True Find

It would therefore be a good thing for us to obey laws and customs because they are laws: to know that there is no right and just law to be brought in, that we know nothing about it and should consequently only follow those already accepted. In this way we should never give them up. But the people are not amenable to this doctrine, and thus, believing that truth can be found and resides in laws and customs, they believe them and take their antiquity as a proof of their truth (and not just of their authority, without truth). Thus they obey them but are liable to revolt as soon as they are shown to be worth nothing, which can happen with all laws if they are looked at from a certain point of view. By Blaise Pascal Laws Accepted Customs Truth Good

Vanity is illustrated in the cause and effect of love, as in the case of Cleopatra. By Blaise Pascal Cleopatra Vanity Love Illustrated Effect

Therefore, those to whom God has imparted religion by intuition are very fortunate and justly convinced. But to those who do not have it, we can give it only by reasoning, waiting for God to give them spiritual insight, without which faith is only human and useless for salvation. By Blaise Pascal God Convinced Imparted Religion Intuition

The difference between the mathematical and the intuitive mind. [1] - In the one the principles are palpable, but removed from ordinary use; so that for want of habit it is difficult to turn one's mind in that direction: but if one turns it thither ever so little, one sees the principles fully, and one must have a quite inaccurate mind who reasons wrongly from principles so plain that it is almost impossible they should escape notice. By Blaise Pascal Mind Principles Difference Mathematical Intuitive

Kind words do not cost much. They never blister the tongue or lips. They make other people good-natured. They also produce their own image on men's souls, and a beautiful image it is. By Blaise Pascal Kind Words Cost Image Lips

Being unable to cure death, wretchedness and ignorance, men have decided, in order to be happy, not to think about such things. By Blaise Pascal Death Wretchedness Ignorance Men Decided

And the same man who spends so many days and nights in fury and despair at losing some office or at some imaginary affront to his honour is the very one who knows that he is going to lose everything through death and feels neither anxiety nor emotion. By Blaise Pascal Emotion Man Spends Days Nights

This religion so great in miracles, in men holy, pure and irreproachable, in scholars, great witnesses and martyrs, established kings - David - Isaiah, a prince of the blood; so great in knowledge, after displaying all its miracles and all its wisdom, rejects it all and says that it offers neither wisdom nor signs, but only the Cross and folly. By Blaise Pascal Great David Isaiah Cross Miracles

So I hold out my arms to my Redeemer, who, having been foretold for four thousand years, has come to suffer and to die for me on earth, at the time and under all the circumstances foretold. By His grace, I await death in peace, in the hope of being eternally united to Him. Yet I live with joy, whether in the prosperity which it pleases Him to bestow upon me, or in the adversity which He sends for my good, and which He has taught me to bear by His example. 737 By Blaise Pascal Redeemer Foretold Years Earth Hold

You always admire what you really don't understand. By Blaise Pascal Understand Admire

Cleopatra's nose, had it been shorter, the whole face of the world would have been changed. By Blaise Pascal Cleopatra Nose Shorter Changed Face

It is dangerous to tell the people that the laws are unjust; for they obey them only because they think them just. Therefore it isnecessary to tell them at the same time that they must obey them because they are laws, just as they must obey superiors, not because they are just, but because they are superiors. In this way all sedition is prevented. By Blaise Pascal Obey Laws Unjust Superiors Dangerous

Let man then contemplate nature in full and lofty majesty, and turn his eyes away from the mean objects which surround him. Let him look at the dazzling light hung aloft as an eternal lamp to lighten the universe; let him behold the earth, a mere dot compared with the vast circuit which that orb describes, and stand amazed to find that the vast circuit itself is but a very fine point compared with the orbit traced by the starts as they roll their course on high. By Blaise Pascal Majesty Vast Man Contemplate Nature

If magistrates had true justice, and if physicians had the true art of healing, they would have no occasion for square caps; the majesty of these sciences would itself be venerable enough. By Blaise Pascal Justice Healing Caps True Magistrates

We must kill them in war, just because they live beyond the river. If they lived on this side, we would be called murderers. By Blaise Pascal War River Kill Live Side

Anyone who found the secret of rejoicing when things go well without being annoyed when they go badly would have found the point. By Blaise Pascal Found Point Secret Rejoicing Things

We conceal it from ourselves in vain - we must always love something. In those matters seemingly removed from love, the feeling is secretly to be found, and man cannot possibly live for a moment without it. By Blaise Pascal Vain Love Conceal Found Matters

Our senses will not admit anything extreme. Too much noise confuses us, too much light dazzles us, too great distance or nearness prevents vision, too great prolixity or brevity weakens an argument, too much pleasure gives pain, too much accordance annoys. By Blaise Pascal Extreme Senses Admit Great Vision

I am in the utmost perplexity, yand have wished a hundred times, that if there is a A God, nature would manifest him without ambiguity, and that if there is not, every imaginary sign of his existence might vanish : in short, let nature speak distinctly, or be totally silent, and I shall know what course to take. By Blaise Pascal God Nature Perplexity Yand Times

Men are so completely fools by necessity that he is but a fool in a higher strain of folly who does not confess his foolishness. By Blaise Pascal Men Foolishness Completely Necessity Higher

Montaigne is wrong in declaring that custom ought to be followed simply because it is custom, and not because it is reasonable or just. By Blaise Pascal Custom Montaigne Wrong Declaring Simply

St. Augustine teaches us that there is in each man a Serpent, an Eve, and an Adam. Our senses and natural propensities are the Serpent; the excitable desire is the Eve; and reason is the Adam. Our nature tempts us perpetually; criminal desire is often excited; but sin is not completed till reason consents. By Blaise Pascal Serpent Eve Adam Augustine Teaches

I would inquire of reasonable persons whether this principle: Matter is naturally wholly incapable of thought, and this other: I think, therefore I am, are in fact the same in the mind ofDescartes, and in that of St. Augustine, who said the same thing twelve hundred years before. By Blaise Pascal Matter Augustine Principle Thought Ofdescartes

This is what I see, and what troubles me. I look on all sides, and everywhere I see nothing but obscurity. Nature offers me nothing that is not a matter of doubt and disquiet. By Blaise Pascal Troubles Sides Obscurity Nature Disquiet

And if one loves me for my judgement, memory, he does not love me, for I can lose these qualities without losing myself. Where, then, is this Ego, if it be neither in the body nor in the soul? And how love the body or the soul, except for these qualities which do not constitute me, since they are perishable? For it is impossible and would be unjust to love the soul of a person in the abstract and whatever qualities might be therein. We never, then, love a person, but only qualities. Let us, then, jeer no more at those who are honoured on account of rank and office; for we love a person only on account of borrowed qualities. By Blaise Pascal Love Qualities Soul Memory Person

We seek rest in a struggle against some obstacles. And when we have overcome these, rest proves unbearable because of the boredom it produces ... By Blaise Pascal Obstacles Rest Seek Struggle Produces

When I consider the brief span of my life absorbed into the eternity which precedes and will succeed it - memoria hospitis unius diei praetereuntis (remembrance of a guest who tarried but a day) - the small space I occupy and which I see swallowed up in the infinite immensity of spaces of which I know nothing and which know nothing of me, I take fright and am amazed to see myself here rather than there: there is no reason for me to be here rather than there, now rather than then. Who put me here? By whose command and act were this place and time allotted to me? By Blaise Pascal Memoria Praetereuntis Remembrance Day Space

There is internal war in man between reason and the passions. If he had only reason without passions ... If he had only passions without reason ... But having both, he cannot be without strife, being unable to be at peace with the one without being at war with the other. Thus he is always divided against, and opposed to himself. By Blaise Pascal Reason Passions Internal Man War

I ask you neither for health nor for sickness, for life nor for death; but that you may dispose of my health and my sickness, my life and my death, for your glory ... You alone know what is expedient for me; you are the sovereign master, do with me according to your will. Give to me, or take away from me, only conform my will to yours. I know but one thing, Lord, that it is good to follow you, and bad to offend you. Apart from that, I know not what is good or bad in anything. I know not which is most profitable to me, health or sickness, wealth or poverty, nor anything else in the world. That discernment is beyond the power of men or angels, and is hidden among the secrets of your providence, which I adore, but do not seek to fathom. By Blaise Pascal Death Life Sickness Glory Health

[I feel] engulfed in the infinite immensity of spaces whereof I know nothing, and which know nothing of me, I am terrified The eternal silence of these infinite spaces alarms me. By Blaise Pascal Infinite Spaces Feel Engulfed Immensity

Continuous eloquence wearies. Grandeur must be abandoned to be appreciated. Continuity in everything is unpleasant. Cold is agreeable, that we may get warm. By Blaise Pascal Continuous Wearies Eloquence Grandeur Appreciated

How vain is painting, which is admired for reproducing the likeness of things whose originals are not admired. By Blaise Pascal Painting Admired Vain Reproducing Likeness

Man is so made that by continually telling him he is a fool he believes it, and by continually telling it to himself he makes himself believe it. For man holds an inward talk with himself, which it pays him to regulate. By Blaise Pascal Continually Telling Man Made Fool

Extreme intelligence is accused of being as foolish as extreme lack of it; only moderation is good. The majority have laid this down and attack anyone who deviates from it towards any extreme whatever. I am not going to be awkward, I readily consent to being put in the middle and refuse to be at the bottom end, not because it is the bottom but because it is the end, for I should refuse just as much to be put at the top. It is deserting humanity to desert the middle way. The greatness of the human soul lies in knowing how to keep this course; greatness does not mean going outside it, but rather keeping within it. By Blaise Pascal Extreme Good Intelligence Accused Foolish

Reflect on death as in Jesus Christ, not as without Jesus Christ. Without Jesus Christ it is dreadful, it is alarming, it is the terror of nature. In Jesus Christ it is fair and lovely, it is good and holy, it is the joy of saints. By Blaise Pascal Jesus Christ Reflect Death Dreadful

All that tends not to charity is figurative. The sole aim of the Scripture is charity. By Blaise Pascal Figurative Charity Scripture Sole Aim

For the chief malady of man is restless curiosity about things which he cannot understand; and it is not so bad for him to be in error as to be curious to no purpose. By Blaise Pascal Understand Purpose Chief Malady Man

Caesar was too old, it seems to me, to go off and amuse himself conquering the world. Such a pastime was all right for Augustus and Alexander; they were young men, not easily held in check, but Caesar ought to have been more mature. By Blaise Pascal World Caesar Amuse Conquering Alexander

Those who make antitheses by forcing the sense are like men who make false windows for the sake of symmetry. Their rule is not to speak justly, but to make accurate figures. By Blaise Pascal Make Symmetry Antitheses Forcing Sense

Distraction is the only thing that consoles us for miseries and yet it is itself the greatest of our miseries. By Blaise Pascal Distraction Miseries Thing Consoles Greatest

The only thing which consoles for our miseries is diversion, and yet this is the greatest of our miseries. For it is this which principally hinders us from reflecting upon ourselves and which makes us imperceptibly ruin ourselves. By Blaise Pascal Miseries Diversion Thing Consoles Greatest

For after all, what is man in creation? Is he not a mere cipher compared with the infinite, a whole compared to the nothing, a mean between zero & all, infinitely remote from understanding of either extreme? Who can follow these astonishing processes? The Author of these wonders understands them, but no one else can. By Blaise Pascal Creation Man Compared Infinite Infinitely

It's not those who write the laws that have the greatest impact on society. It's those who write the songs. By Blaise Pascal Write Society Laws Greatest Impact

How I hate this folly of not believing in the Eucharist, etc.! If the gospel be true, if Jesus Christ be God, what difficulty is there? By Blaise Pascal Etc Eucharist God Hate Folly

Death is easier to bear without thinking of it, than the thought of death without peril. By Blaise Pascal Peril Death Easier Bear Thinking

Those great efforts of intellect, upon which the mind sometimes touches, are such that it cannot maintain itself there. It only leaps to them, not as upon a throne, forever, but merely for an instant. By Blaise Pascal Intellect Touches Forever Great Efforts

If a man loves a woman for her beauty, does he love her? No; for the smallpox, which destroys her beauty without killing her, causes his love to cease. And if any one loves me for my judgment or my memory, does he really love me? No; for I can lose these qualities without ceasing to be. By Blaise Pascal Beauty Love Man Woman Loves

The married should not forget that to speak of love begets love. By Blaise Pascal Love Married Forget Speak Begets

The weakness of human reason appears more evidently in those who know it not than in those who know it. By Blaise Pascal Weakness Human Reason Evidently

Who confers reputation? who gives respect and veneration to persons, to books, to great men? Who but Opinion? How utterly insufficient are all the riches of the world without her approbation! By Blaise Pascal Reputation Confers Opinion Persons Books

Let man reawake and consider what he is compared with the reality of things; regard himself lost in this remote corner of Nature; and from the tiny cell where he lodges, to wit the Universe, weigh at their true worth earth, kingdoms, towns, himself. What is a man face to face with infinity? By Blaise Pascal Nature Universe Kingdoms Towns Things

Man is full of desires: he loves only those who can satisfy them all. "This man is a good mathematician," someone will say. But I have no concern for mathematics; he would take me for a proposition. "That one is a good soldier." He would take me for a besieged town. I need, that is to say, a decent man who can accommodate himself to all my desires in a general sort of way. By Blaise Pascal Man Full Loves Satisfy Good

On the occasions when I have pondered over men's various activities, the dangers and worries they are exposed to at court or at war, from which so many quarrels, passions, risky, often ill-conceived actions and so on are born, I have often said that man's unhappiness springs from one thing alone, his incapacity to stay quietly in one room. A man wealthy enough for life's needs would never leave home to go to sea or beseige some fortress if he knew how to stay at home and enjoy it ... By Blaise Pascal Passions Risky Stay Activities War

God has given us evidence sufficiently clear to convince those with an open heart and mind ... By Blaise Pascal God Mind Evidence Sufficiently Clear

Those who are accustomed to judge by feeling do not understand the process of reasoning, because they want to comprehend at a glance and are not used to seeking for first principles. Those, on the other hand, who are accustomed to reason from first principles do not understand matters of feeling at all, because they look for first principles and are unable to comprehend at a glance. By Blaise Pascal Principles Accustomed Comprehend Understand Glance

It is the conduct of God, who disposes all things kindly, to put religion into the mind by reason, and into the heart by grace. By Blaise Pascal God Kindly Reason Grace Conduct

All the excesses, all the violence, and all the vanity of great men, come from the fact that they know not what they are: it being difficult for those who regard themselves at heart asequal with all men ... For this it is necessary for one to forget himself, and to believe that he has some real excellence above them, in which consists this illusion that I am endeavoring todiscover to you. By Blaise Pascal Men Excesses Violence Vanity Great

Parents fear the destruction of natural affection in their children. What is this natural principle so liable to decay? Habit is a second nature, which destroys the first. Why is not custom nature? I suspect that this nature itself is but a first custom, as custom is a second nature. By Blaise Pascal Nature Parents Children Natural Custom

Cold words freeze people, and hot words scorch them, and bitter words make them bitter, and wrathful words make them wrathful. Kind words also produce their own image on men's souls; and a beautiful image it is. They smooth, and quiet, and comfort the hearer. By Blaise Pascal Make Words Bitter Wrathful Cold

If I had more time I would write a shorter letter. By Blaise Pascal Letter Time Write Shorter

When we would think of God, how many things we find which turn us away from Him, and tempt us to think otherwise. All this is evil, yet it is innate. By Blaise Pascal God Things Find Turn Tempt

For after all what is man in nature? A nothing in relation to infinity, all in relation to nothing, a central point between nothing and all and infinitely far from understanding either. The ends of things and their beginnings are impregnably concealed from him in an impenetrable secret. He is equally incapable of seeing the nothingness out of which he was drawn and the infinite in which he is engulfed. By Blaise Pascal Nature Relation Man Central Point

Il y a deux sortes d'esprits, l'un ge ome trique, et l'autre que l'on peut appeler de finesse. Le premier a des vues lentes, dures et inflexibles; mais le dernier a une souplesse de pense e. There are two kinds of mind, one mathematical, the other what one might call the intuitive. The first takes a slow, firm, inflexible view, but the latter has flexibility of thought. By Blaise Pascal Desprits Lun Trique Finesse Deux

Our achievements of today are but the sum total of our thoughts of yesterday. You are today where the thoughts of yesterday have brought you and you will be tomorrow where the thoughts of today take you. By Blaise Pascal Thoughts Today Yesterday Achievements Sum

La chose la plus importante a' toute la vie est le choix du me tier: le hasard en dispose. The most important thing in life is to choose a profession: chance arranges for that. By Blaise Pascal Toute Tier Dispose Chose Importante

Eloquence is an art of saying things in such a way (1) that those to whom we speak may listen to them without pain and with pleasure; (2) that they feel themselves interested, so that self-love leads them more willingly to reflection upon it. By Blaise Pascal Eloquence Pleasure Interested Art Things

The best defense against logic is ignorance. By Blaise Pascal Ignorance Defense Logic

The brutes do not admire each other. A horse does not admire his companion. Not that there is no rivalry between them in a race, but that is of no consequence; for, when in the stable, the heaviest and most ill-formed does not give up his oats to another as men would have others do to them. Their virtue is satisfied with itself. By Blaise Pascal Admire Brutes Companion Horse Race

For nature is an image of Grace, and visible miracles are images of the invisible. By Blaise Pascal Grace Invisible Nature Visible Miracles

A true friend is so great an advantage, even for the greatest lords, in order that he may speak well of them, and back them in their absence, that they should do all to have one. By Blaise Pascal Advantage Lords Absence True Friend

When we would show any one that he is mistaken, our best course is to observe on what side he considers the subject,for his view of if is generally right on this side,and admit to him that he is right so far. He will be satisfied with this acknowledgment, that he was not wrong in his judgment, but only inadvertent in not looking at the whole case. By Blaise Pascal Mistaken Show Observe Side Subjectfor

Christian piety annihilates the egoism of the heart; worldly politeness veils and represses it. By Blaise Pascal Christian Heart Worldly Piety Annihilates

Civil wars are the greatest of evils. They are inevitable, if we wish to reward merit, for all will say that they are meritorious. By Blaise Pascal Civil Evils Wars Greatest Inevitable

The finite is annihilated in the presence of the infinite, and becomes a pure nothing. So our spirit before God, so our justice before divine justice. By Blaise Pascal Infinite Finite Annihilated Presence Pure

Imagine a number of men in chains, all under sentence of death, some of whom are each day butchered in the sight of others those remaining see their own condition in that of their fellows, and looking at each other with grief and despair await their turn. This is an image of the human condition. By Blaise Pascal Imagine Chains Death Fellows Turn

Where then is this self, if it is neither in the body nor the soul? And how can one love the body or the soul except for the sake of such qualities, which are not what makes up the self, since they are perishable? Would we love the substance of a person's soul, in the abstract, whatever qualities might be in it? That is not possible, and it would be wrong. Therefore we never love anyone, but only qualities. By Blaise Pascal Soul Body Love Qualities Perishable

Let it not be imagined that the life of a good Christian must be a life of melancholy and gloominess; for he only resigns some pleasures to enjoy others infinitely better. By Blaise Pascal Christian Life Gloominess Imagined Good

The human being is only a reed, the most feeble in nature; but this is a thinking reed. It isn't necessary for the entire universe to arm itself in order to crush him; a whiff of vapor, a taste of water, suffices to kill him. But when the universe crushes him, the human being becomes still more noble than that which kills him, because he knows that he is dying, and the advantage that the universe has over him. The universe, it does not have a clue.All our dignity consists, then, in thought. This is the basis on which we must raise ourselves, and not space and time, which we would not know how to fill. Let us make it our task, then, to think well: here is the principle of morality. By Blaise Pascal Reed Universe Human Nature Feeble

Our senses perceive no extreme. Too much sound deafens us; too much light dazzles us; too great distance or proximity hinders ourview. Too great length and too great brevity of discourse tends to obscurity; too much truth is paralyzing ... In short, extremes are for us as though they were not, and we are not within their notice. They escape us, or we them. By Blaise Pascal Great Senses Perceive Ourview Extreme

There are three means of believingby inspiration, by reason, and by custom. Christianity, which is the only rational institution, does yet admit none for its sons who do not believe by inspiration. Nor does it injure reason or custom, or debar them of their proper force; on the contrary, it directs us to open our minds by the proofs of the former, and to confirm our minds by the authority of the latter. By Blaise Pascal Inspiration Custom Believingby Reason Minds

Our notion of symmetry is derived form the human face. Hence, we demand symmetry horizontally and in breadth only, not vertically nor in depth. By Blaise Pascal Face Symmetry Notion Derived Form

Imagination magnifies small objects with fantastic exaggeration until they fill our soul, and with bold insolence cuts down great things to its own size, as when speaking of God. By Blaise Pascal God Imagination Soul Size Magnifies

We are not satisfied with real life; we want to live some imaginary life in the eyes of other people and to seem different from what we actually are. By Blaise Pascal Life Satisfied Real Live Imaginary

Vanity is so secure in the heart of man that everyone wants to be admired: even I who write this, and you who read this. By Blaise Pascal Vanity Admired Secure Heart Man

Jesus Christ came to tell men that they have no enemies but themselves. By Blaise Pascal Christ Jesus Men Enemies

They do not know that they seek only the chase and not the quarry. By Blaise Pascal Quarry Seek Chase

Thus I stretch out my arms to my Saviour, who, after being foretold for four thousand years, came on earth to die and suffer for me at the time and in the circumstances foretold. By his grace I peaceably await death, in the hope of being eternally united to him, and meanwhile I live joyfully, whether in the blessings which he is pleased to bestow on me or in the affliction he sends me for my own good and taught me how to endure by his example. By Blaise Pascal Saviour Foretold Years Stretch Arms

That dog is mine said those poor children; that place in the sun is mine; such is the beginning and type of usurpation throughout the earth.[Fr., Ce chien est a moi, disaient ces pauvres enfants; c'est la ma place au soleil. Voila le commencement et l'image de l'usurpation de toute la terre.] By Blaise Pascal Mine Place Children Earth Moi

The captain of a ship is not chosen from those of the passengers who comes from the best family. By Blaise Pascal Family Captain Ship Chosen Passengers

We must sit by these rivers, not under or in them, but above, not standing upright, but sitting down, so that we remain humble by sitting, and safe by remaining above. By Blaise Pascal Sitting Rivers Upright Sit Standing

If there is a God, He is infinitely incomprehensible, since, having, neither parts nor limits, He has no affinity to us. We are then incapable of knowing either what He is or if He is. [So] you must wager. Let us weigh the gain and the loss in wagering that God is. Let us estimate these two chances. If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager then without hesitation that he is. By Blaise Pascal God Incomprehensible Limits Gain Infinitely

For it is beyond doubt that there is nothing which more shocks our reason than to say that the sin of the first man has rendered guilty those, who, being so removed from this source, seem incapable of participation in it. This transmission does not only seem to us impossible, it seems also very unjust. For what is more contrary to the rules of our miserable justice than to damn eternally an infant incapable of will, for a sin wherein he seems to have so little a share, that it was committed six thousand years before he was in existence? Certainly nothing offends us more rudely than this doctrine; and yet, without this mystery, the most incomprehensible of all, we are incomprehensible to ourselves. The knot of our condition takes its twists and turns in this abyss, so that man is more inconceivable without this mystery than this mystery is inconceivable to man. By Blaise Pascal Source Mystery Man Incapable Doubt

Nature has perfections, in order to show that she is the image of God; and defects, to show that she is only his image. By Blaise Pascal God Show Nature Perfections Defects

The Christian religion alone has been able to cure these twin vices, not by using one to expel the other according to worldly wisdom, but by expelling both through the simplicity of the Gospel. For it teaches the righteous, whom it exalts, even to participation in divinity itself, that in this sublime state they still bear the source of all corruption, which exposes them throughout their lives to error, misery, death and sin; and it cries out to the most ungodly that they are capable of the grace of their redeemer. Thus, making those whom it justifies tremble and consoling those whom it condemns, it so nicely tempers fear with hope through this dual capacity, common to all men, for grace and sin, that it causes infinitely more dejection than mere reason, but without despair, and infinitely more exaltation than natural pride, but without puffing us up. By Blaise Pascal Gospel Christian Sin Vices Wisdom

Who dispenses reputation? Who makes us respect and revere persons, works, laws, the great? Who but this faculty of imagination? All the riches of the earth are inadequate without its approval. By Blaise Pascal Reputation Dispenses Works Laws Persons

Power rules the world, not opinion, but it is opinion that exploits power. It is power that makes opinion. To be easygoing can be a fine thing according to our opinion. Why? Because anyone who wants to dance the tightrope will be alone, and I can get together a stronger body of people to say there is nothing fine about it. By Blaise Pascal Opinion Power World Rules Exploits

Instead of complaining that God had hidden himself, you will give Him thanks for having revealed so much of Himself. By Blaise Pascal God Complaining Hidden Give Revealed

Force and not opinion is the queen of the world; but it is opinion that uses the force.[Fr., La force est la reine du monde, et non pas l'opinion; mais l'opinion est celle qui use de la force.] By Blaise Pascal Force World Force Monde Mais

The heart has its order, the mind has its own, which uses principles and demonstrations. The heart has a different one. We do not prove that we ought to be loved by setting out in order the causes of love; that would be absurd. By Blaise Pascal Heart Demonstrations Mind Principles Order

The mind has its arrangement; it proceeds from principles to demonstrations. The heart has a different mode of proceeding. By Blaise Pascal Arrangement Demonstrations Mind Proceeds Principles

The method of not erring is sought by all the world. The logicians profess to guide it, the geometricians alone attain it, and apart from science, and the imitations of it, there are notrue demonstrations. By Blaise Pascal World Method Erring Sought Science

A few rules include all that is necessary for the perfection of the definitions, the axioms, and the demonstrations, and consequently of the entire method of the geometrical proofs of theart of persuading. By Blaise Pascal Definitions Axioms Demonstrations Persuading Rules

A town, a landscape are when seen from afar a town and a landscape; but as one gets nearer, there are houses, trees, tiles leaves, grasses, ants, legs of ants and so on to infinity. All this is subsumed under the name of landscape. By Blaise Pascal Town Trees Grasses Ants Landscape

The Fall is an offense to human reason, but once accepted, it makes perfect sense of the human condition. By Blaise Pascal Fall Reason Accepted Condition Human

Death itself is less painful when it comes upon us unawares than the bare contemplation of it, even when danger is far distant. By Blaise Pascal Death Distant Painful Unawares Bare

All our reasoning boils down to yielding to sentiment. By Blaise Pascal Sentiment Reasoning Boils Yielding

We know the existence of the infinite without knowing its nature, because it too has extension but unlike us no limits.But we do not know either the existence or the nature of God, because he has neither extension nor limits. By Blaise Pascal God Existence Nature Extension Limits

The power of a man's virtue should not be measured by his special efforts, but by his ordinary doing. By Blaise Pascal Efforts Power Man Virtue Measured

I can approve of those only who seek in tears for happiness. By Blaise Pascal Happiness Approve Seek Tears

When everyone is moving towards depravity, no one seems to be moving, but if someone stops he shows up the others who are rushing on, by acting as a fixed point. By Blaise Pascal Depravity Point Moving Stops Shows

If the foot had never realized it belonged to the body, & that there never was a body on which it depended, if it had only known & loved itself & then came to know that it really belonged to the body on which it depended, think of the regret & shame it would feel for its past existence. It would recognize how useless it had been to the body in spite of the life poured into it, & how it would have been destroyed if the body had rejected it & cut it off as the foot cut itself off from the body! How it would have desired earnestly to be kept on! How obediently it would let itself be governed by the will in charge of the body, to the point of being amputated if necessary! Otherwise it would cease to a member, for every member must be ready to perish for the sake of the whole, for whose sake alone exists. By Blaise Pascal Body Depended Belonged Foot Loved

Nothing is so insufferable to man as to be completely at rest, without passions, without business, without diversion, without study. He then feels his nothingness, his forlornness, his insufficiency, his dependence, his weakness, his emptiness. There will immediately arise from the depth of his heart weariness, gloom, sadness, fretfulness, vexation, despair. By Blaise Pascal Rest Passions Business Diversion Study

I have only made this letter longer because I have not had the time to make it shorter.(Letter 16, 1657) By Blaise Pascal Letter Shorter Made Longer Time

There are two excesses: to exclude reason, to admit nothing but reason. The supreme achievement of reason is to realise that there is a limit to reason. Reason's last step is the recognition that there are an infinite number of things which are beyond it. It is merely feeble if it does not go as far as to realise that. By Blaise Pascal Reason Excesses Realise Exclude Admit

Not only do we know God through Jesus Christ, we only know ourselves through Jesus Christ. By Blaise Pascal Christ Jesus God

For in fact what is man in nature? A Nothing in comparison with the Infinite, an All in comparison with the Nothing, a mean between nothing and everything. By Blaise Pascal Nature Comparison Fact Man Infinite

Mutual cheating is the foundation of society. By Blaise Pascal Mutual Society Cheating Foundation

The greatness of man is great in that he knows himself to be miserable. A tree does not know itself to be miserable. It is then being miserable to know oneself to be miserable; but it is also being great to know that one is miserable. By Blaise Pascal Miserable Greatness Man Great Tree

To make a man a saint, it must indeed be by grace; and whoever doubts this does not know what a saint is, or a man. By Blaise Pascal Man Saint Grace Make Doubts

All err the more dangerously because each follows a truth. Their mistake lies not in following a falsehood but in not following another truth. By Blaise Pascal Truth Err Dangerously Mistake Lies

All this visible world is but an imperceptible point in the ample bosom of nature. By Blaise Pascal Nature Visible World Imperceptible Point

Meanings receive their dignity from words instead of giving it to them. By Blaise Pascal Meanings Receive Dignity Words Giving

Man is to himself the most wonderful object in nature; for he cannot conceive what the body is, still less what the mind is, and least of all how a body should be united to a mind. This is the consummation of his difficulties, and yet it is his very being. By Blaise Pascal Body Mind Man Nature Wonderful

When some passion or effect is described in a natural style, we find within ourselves the truth of what we hear, without knowing it was there. By Blaise Pascal Style Hear Passion Effect Natural

I lay it down as a fact that if all men knew what others say of them, there would not be four friends in the world. By Blaise Pascal World Lay Fact Men Knew

There are hardly any truths upon which we always remain agreed, and still fewer objects of pleasure which we do not change every hour, I do not know whether there is a means of giving fixedrules for adapting discourse to the inconstancy of our caprices. By Blaise Pascal Agreed Hour Caprices Truths Remain

The mind of the greatest man on earth is not so independent of circumstances as not to feel inconvenienced by the merest buzzing noise about him; it does not need the report of a cannon to disturb his thoughts. The creaking of a vane or a pully is quite enough. Do not wonder that he reasons ill just now; a fly is buzzing by his ear; it is quite enough to unfit him for giving good counsel. By Blaise Pascal Thoughts Mind Greatest Man Earth

You would like to cure yourself of unbelief and ask the remedy for it. Learn of those who have been bound like you, and who now stake all their possessions. These are people who know the way which you would follow, and who are cured of an ill of which you would be cured. Follow the way by which they began; by acting as if they believed, taking the holy water, having masses said, etc. Even this will naturally make you believe, and deaden your acuteness. By Blaise Pascal Cure Unbelief Remedy Follow Cured

Bless yourself with holy water, have Masses said, and so on; by a simple and natural process this will make you believe, and will dull you - will quiet your proudly critical intellect. By Blaise Pascal Masses Bless Water Intellect Holy

Nothing is so important to man as his own state; nothing is so formidable to him as eternity. And thus it is unnatural that thereshould be men indifferent to the loss of their existence and to the perils of everlasting suffering. By Blaise Pascal State Eternity Important Man Formidable

Good deeds, when concealed, are the most admirable. By Blaise Pascal Good Deeds Concealed Admirable

They say that eclipses are portents of disaster, because disasters are so common, and misfortune occurs often enough for these forecasts to be right, whereas if they said that eclipses were portents of good fortune they would often be wrong. By Blaise Pascal Eclipses Portents Common Wrong Misfortune

I take it as a matter not to be disputed, that if all knew what each said of the other, there would not be four friends in the world. This seems proved by the quarrels and disputes caused by the disclosures which are occasionally made. By Blaise Pascal Disputed World Matter Knew Friends

What a strange vanity painting is; it attracts admiration by resembling the original, we do not admire. By Blaise Pascal Original Admire Strange Vanity Painting

There is a certain standard of grace and beauty which consists in a certain relation between our nature ... and the thing which pleases us. By Blaise Pascal Nature Standard Grace Beauty Consists

It is not possible to have reasonable grounds for not believing in miracles. By Blaise Pascal Miracles Reasonable Grounds Believing

Sceptic, mathematician, Christian; doubt, affirmation, submission. By Blaise Pascal Christian Sceptic Mathematician Doubt Affirmation

Why are we not angry if we are told that we have a headache, and why are we angry if we are told that we reason badly, or choose wrongly? The reason is that we are quite certain that we have not a headache, or are not lame, but we are not so sure that we make a true choice. So having assurance only because we see with our whole sight, it puts us into suspense and surprise when another with his whole sight sees the opposite, and still more so when a thousand others deride our choice. For we must prefer our own lights to those of so many others, and that is bold and difficult. By Blaise Pascal Told Angry Headache Reason Badly

Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction. By Blaise Pascal Men Conviction Evil Completely Cheerfully

I see the terrifying spaces of the universe that enclose me, and I find myself attached to a corner of this vast expanse, without knowing why I am more in this place than in another, nor why this little time that is given me to live is assigned me at this point more than another out of all the eternity that has preceded me and out of all that will follow me. By Blaise Pascal Expanse Terrifying Spaces Universe Enclose

According to the doctrine of chance, you ought to put yourself to the trouble of searching for the truth; for if you die without worshiping the True Cause, you are lost. "But," say you, "if He had wished me to worship Him, He would have left me signs of His will." He has done so; but you neglect them. Seek them, therefore; it is well worth it. By Blaise Pascal True Chance Truth Lost Doctrine

Knowing God without knowing our own wretchedness makes for pride. Knowing our own wretchedness without knowing God makes for despair.Knowing Jesus Christ strikes the balance because he shows us both God and our own wretchedness. By Blaise Pascal God Knowing Wretchedness Makes Pride

The art of subversion, of revolution, is to dislodge established customs by probing down to their origins in order to show how they lack authority and justice. By Blaise Pascal Subversion Revolution Justice Art Dislodge

We have so exalted a notion of the human soul that we cannot bear to be despised, or even not to be esteemed by it. Man, in fact, places all his happiness in this esteem. By Blaise Pascal Despised Man Exalted Notion Human

I do not know whether God exists, but I know that I have nothing to gain from being an atheist if he does not exist, whereas I have plenty to lose if he does. Hence, this justifies my belief in God. By Blaise Pascal God Exists Exist Gain Atheist

What is it, in your opinion, to be a great nobleman? It is to be master of several objects that men covet, and thus to be able to satisfy the wants and the desires of many. It is thesewants and these desires that attract them towards you, and that make them submit to you: were it not for these, they would not even look at you; but they hope, by these services ... to obtainfrom you some part of the good which they desire, and of which they see that you have the disposal. By Blaise Pascal Opinion Nobleman Great Desires Covet

If they [Plato and Aristotle] wrote about politics it was as if to lay down rules for a madhouse.And if they pretended to treat it as something really important it was because they knew that the madmen they were talking to believed themselves to be kings and emperors. They humored these beliefs in order to calm down their madness with as little harm as possible. By Blaise Pascal Plato Aristotle Wrote Emperors Politics

All who say the same things do not possess them in the same manner; and hence the incomparable author of the Art of Conversation pauses with so much care to make it understood that we mustnot judge of the capacity of a man by the excellence of a happy remark that we heard him make ... let us penetrate, says he, the mind from which it proceeds ... it will oftenest be seen thathe will be made to disavow it on the spot, and will be drawn very far from this better thought in which he does not believe, to plunge himself into another, quite base and ridiculous. By Blaise Pascal Make Art Conversation Manner Things

The sole case of man's unhappiness is that he does not know how to stay quietly in his room By Blaise Pascal Room Sole Case Man Unhappiness

Clarity of mind means clarity of passion, too; this is why a great and clear mind loves ardently and sees distinctly what it loves. By Blaise Pascal Clarity Passion Mind Loves Great

All sorrow has its root in man's inability to sit quiet in a room by himself. By Blaise Pascal Sorrow Root Man Inability Sit

What then is to become of man? Will he be the equal of god or the beasts? What a terrifying distance! What then shall he be? Who cannot see from all this that man is lost, that he has fallen from his place, that he anxiously seeks it, and cannot find it again? And who then is to direct him there? The greatest men have failed. By Blaise Pascal Man Beasts Equal God Distance

There is nothing so insupportable to man as to be in entire repose, without passion, occupation, amusement, or application. Then it is that he feels his own nothingness, isolation, insignificance, dependent nature, powerless, emptiness. Immediately there issue from his soul ennui, sadness, chagrin, vexation, despair. By Blaise Pascal Occupation Amusement Repose Passion Application

Knowledge has two extremes. The first is the pure natural ignorance in which all men find themselves at birth. The other extreme is that reached by great minds, who, having run through all that men can know, find they know nothing, and come back again to that same natural ignorance from which they set out; this is a learned ignorance which is conscious of itself. By Blaise Pascal Knowledge Ignorance Natural Men Find

There is a virtuous fear, which is the effect of faith; and there is a vicious fear, which is the product of doubt. The former leads to hope, as relying on God, in whom we believe; the latter inclines to despair, as not relying on God, in whom we do not believe. Persons of the one character fear to lose God; persons of the other character fear to find Him. By Blaise Pascal God Fear Faith Doubt Persons

From whence comes it that a cripple in body does not irritate us, and that a crippled mind enrages us? It is because a cripple sees that we go right, and a distorted mind says that it is we who go astray. But for that we should have more pity and less rage. By Blaise Pascal Cripple Mind Body Irritate Crippled

When intuition and logic agree, you are always right. By Blaise Pascal Agree Intuition Logic

Do they think that they have given us great pleasure by telling us that they hold our soul to be no more than wind or smoke, and saying it moreover in tones of pride and satisfaction? Is this then something to be said gaily? Is it not on the contrary something to be said sadly, as being the saddest thing in the world? By Blaise Pascal Smoke Satisfaction Great Pleasure Telling

Reverend Fathers, my letters do not customarily follow one another so closely, nor are they usually so extensive. The little time I have had has caused both. I have made this one longer only because I have not had the leisure of making it shorter. By Blaise Pascal Fathers Reverend Closely Extensive Letters

I cannot judge my work while I am doing it. I have to do as painters do, stand back and view it from a distance, but not too great a distance. How great? Guess. By Blaise Pascal Distance Judge Work Great Stand

There is nothing we can now call our own, for what we call so is the effect of art; crimes are made by decrees of the senate, or by the votes of the people; and as here-to-fore we are burdened by vices, so now we are oppressed by laws. By Blaise Pascal Call Art Crimes Senate People

What reason for vanity in being plunged into impenetrable darkness? By Blaise Pascal Darkness Reason Vanity Plunged Impenetrable

The serene, silent beauty of a holy life is the most powerful influence in the world, next to the night of God. By Blaise Pascal God Serene Silent World Beauty

Undoubtedly equality of goods is just; but, being unable to cause might to obey justice, men has made it just to obey might. Unable to strengthen justice, they have justified mightso that the just and the strong should unite, and there should be peace, which is the sovereign good. By Blaise Pascal Obey Justice Undoubtedly Men Unable

Vanity is so anchored in the heart of man that a soldier, a soldier's servant, a cook, a porter brags and wishes to have his admirers. Even philosophers wish for them. Those who write against vanity want to have the glory of having written well; and those who read it desire the glory of having read it. I who write this have perhaps this desire, and perhaps those who will read it. By Blaise Pascal Soldier Servant Cook Admirers Read

Even those who write against fame wish for the fame of having written well, and those who read their works desire the fame of having read them. By Blaise Pascal Fame Read Write Written Works

Too much pleasure disagrees with us. Too many concords are annoying in music; too many benefits irritate us; we wish to have the wherewithal to overpay our debts. By Blaise Pascal Pleasure Disagrees Music Debts Concords

The strength of a man's virtue should not be measured by his special exertions, but by his habitual acts. By Blaise Pascal Exertions Acts Strength Man Virtue

The virtue of a man ought to be measured not by his extraordinary exertions, but by his every-day conduct. By Blaise Pascal Exertions Conduct Virtue Man Measured

The world is ruled by force, not by opinion; but opinion uses force. By Blaise Pascal Force Opinion World Ruled

The infinite distance between the mind & the body is a symbol of the distance that is infinitely more, between the intellect & love, for love is divine. By Blaise Pascal Distance Love Mind Intellect Divine

Human beings do not know their place and purpose. They have fallen from their true place, and lost their true purpose. They search everywhere for their place and purpose, with great anxiety. But they cannot find them because they are surrounded by darkness. By Blaise Pascal Purpose Place Human True Fallen

When we want to correct someone usefully and show him he is wrong, we must see from what point of view he is approaching the matter, for it is usually right from that point of view, and we must admit this, but show him the point of view from which it is wrong. This will please him, because he will see that he was not wrong but merely failed to see every aspect of the question. Now, no one is annoyed at not seeing everything, but no one wants to be wrong; the reason for that may be that man is not by nature able to see everything, and by nature cannot be wrong from the point of view he adopts, as sense impressions are always true. By Blaise Pascal View Point Wrong Show Matter

Eloquence; it requires the pleasant and the real; but the pleasant must itself be drawn from the true. By Blaise Pascal Eloquence Pleasant Real True Requires

There should be in eloquence that which is pleasing and that which is real; but that which is pleasing should itself be real. By Blaise Pascal Real Pleasing Eloquence

Continued eloquence is wearisome. By Blaise Pascal Continued Wearisome Eloquence

Pride counterbalances all our miseries, for it either hides them, or, if it discloses them, boasts of that disclosure. Pride has such a thorough possession of us, even in the midst of our miseries and faults, that we are prepared to sacrifice life with joy, if it may but be talked of. By Blaise Pascal Pride Boasts Disclosure Miseries Counterbalances

All human evil comes from a single cause, man's inability to sit still in a room. By Blaise Pascal Man Room Human Evil Single

He that takes truth for his guide, and duty for his end, may safely trust to God's providence to lead him aright By Blaise Pascal God Guide End Aright Truth

11 All great amusements are dangerous to the Christian life; but among all those which the world has invented there is none more to be feared than the theatre. It is a representation of the passions so natural and so delicate that it excites them and gives birth to them in our hearts, and, above all, to that of love, principally when it is represented as very chaste and virtuous. For the more innocent it appears to innocent souls, the more they are likely to be touched by it. By Blaise Pascal Christian Life Theatre Great Amusements

Let no one say that I have said nothing new ... the arrangement of the subject is new. When we play tennis, we both play with the same ball, but one of us places it better. By Blaise Pascal Play Tennis Ball Arrangement Subject

People are generally better persuaded by the reasons which they have themselves discovered than by those which have come into the mind of others. By Blaise Pascal People Generally Persuaded Reasons Discovered

We know the truth not only through our reason but also through our heart. It is through the latter that we know first principles, and reason, which has nothing to do with it, tries in vain to refute them. By Blaise Pascal Heart Reason Truth Principles Vain

Who can doubt that we exist only to love? Disguise it, in fact, as we will, we love without intermission ... We live not a moment exempt from its influence. By Blaise Pascal Love Doubt Exist Disguise Fact

Knowlege of God without knowledge of man's wretchedness leads to pride. Knowledge of man's wretchedness without knowledge of God leads to despair. Knowledge of Jesus Christ is the middle course, because by it we discover both God and our wretched state. By Blaise Pascal Knowledge God Man Wretchedness Leads

To be mistaken in believing that the Christian religion is true is no great loss to anyone; but how dreadful to be mistaken in believing it to be false! By Blaise Pascal Mistaken Believing Christian False Religion

I would have far more fear of being mistaken, and of finding that the Christian religion was true, than of not being mistaken in believing it true. By Blaise Pascal True Mistaken Christian Fear Finding

The Christian's God does not consist merely of a God who is the author of mathematical truths and the order of elements ... But a God of love and consolation. By Blaise Pascal God Christian Elements Consist Author

L'homme n'est ni ange ni be" te, et le malheur veut que qui veut faire l'ange fait la be" te. Man is neither angel nor beast.Unfortunately, he who wants to act the angel often acts the beast. By Blaise Pascal Lhomme Veut Nest Ange Malheur

At the centre of every human being is a God-shaped vacuum which can only be filled by Jesus Christ. By Blaise Pascal Christ Godshaped Jesus Centre Human

He who cannot believe is cursed, for he reveals by his unbelief that God has not chosen to give him grace. By Blaise Pascal God Cursed Grace Reveals Unbelief

We desire truth and find within ourselves only uncertainty. By Blaise Pascal Uncertainty Desire Truth Find

Just as all things speak about God to those that know Him, and reveal Him to those that love Him, they also hide Him from all those that neither seek nor know Him. By Blaise Pascal God Things Speak Reveal Love

Not the zeal alone of those who seek Him proves God, but the blindness of those who seek Him not. By Blaise Pascal God Seek Zeal Proves Blindness

When I consider the short duration of my life, swallowed up in the eternity before and after, the little space which I fill, and even can see, engulfed in the infinite immensity of spaces of which I am ignorant, and which know me not, I am frightened, and am astonished at being here rather than there; for there is no reason why here rather than there, why now rather than then. Who has put me here? By whose order and direction have this place and time been allotted to me? Memoria hospitis unius diei praetereuntis. By Blaise Pascal Life Swallowed Fill Engulfed Ignorant

Man is clearly made to think. It is his whole dignity and his whole merit; and his whole duty is to think as he ought. And the order of thought is to begin with ourselves, and with our Author and our end. By Blaise Pascal Man Made Author Merit Dignity

Descartes useless and unnecessary. By Blaise Pascal Descartes Unnecessary Useless

The knowledge of God is very far from the love of Him. By Blaise Pascal God Knowledge Love

We run carelessly to the precipice, after we have put something before us to prevent us seeing it. By Blaise Pascal Precipice Run Carelessly Put Prevent

Who knows if this other half of life where we think we're awake is not another sleep a little different from the first. By Blaise Pascal Half Life Awake Sleep

We do not sustain ourselves in virtue by our own strength, but by the balancing of two opposed vices, just as we remain upright amidst two contrary gales. Remove one of the vices, and we fall into the other. By Blaise Pascal Vices Strength Gales Sustain Virtue

Man is nothing but insincerity, falsehood, and hypocrisy, both in regard to himself and in regard to others. He does not wish that he should be told the truth, he shuns saying it to others; and all these moods, so inconsistent with justice and reason, have their roots in his heart. By Blaise Pascal Regard Falsehood Man Insincerity Hypocrisy

You gave me health that I might serve you; and so often I failed to use my good health in your service. Now you send me sickness in order to correct me Grant that, having ignored the things of spirit when my body was vigorous, I may now enjoy spiritual sweetness while my body groans with pain. By Blaise Pascal Health Service Gave Serve Failed

The two principles of truth, reason and senses, are not only both not genuine, but are engaged in mutual deception. The senses deceive reason through false appearances, and the senses are disturbed by passions, which produce false impressions. By Blaise Pascal Senses Truth Genuine Deception Reason

Two contrary reasons. We must begin with that, otherwise we cannot understand anything and everything is heretical. And even at the end of each truth we must add that we are bearing the opposite truth in mind. By Blaise Pascal Reasons Contrary Truth Heretical Begin

Christianity is strange: it requires human beings to recognize that they are vile and even abominable. By Blaise Pascal Christianity Strange Abominable Requires Human

We are so presumptuous that we should like to be known all over the world, even by people who will only come when we are no more. Such is our vanity that the good opinion of half a dozen of the people around us gives us pleasure and satisfaction. By Blaise Pascal World People Presumptuous Satisfaction Vanity

Little things console us because little things afflict us. By Blaise Pascal Things Console Afflict

We sometimes learn more from the sight of evil than from an example of good; and it is well to accustom ourselves to profit by the evil which is so common, while that which is good is so rare. By Blaise Pascal Evil Good Common Rare Learn

The weather and my mood have little connection. I have my foggy and my fine days within me; my prosperity or misfortune has little to do with the matter. By Blaise Pascal Connection Weather Mood Matter Foggy

We never live, but we hope to live; and as we are always arranging to be happy, it must be that we never are so. By Blaise Pascal Live Happy Hope Arranging

Let them at least learn what is the religion they attack, before attacking it. If this religion boasted of having a clear view of God, and of possessing it open and unveiled, it would be attacking it to say that we see nothing in the world which shows it with this clearness. But since, on the contrary, it says that men are By Blaise Pascal Attacking Attack Religion Learn God

Those who profess contempt for men, and put them on a level with beasts, yet wish to be admired and believed by men, and contradict themselves by their own feelingstheir nature, which is stronger than all, convincing them of the greatness of man more forcibly than reason convinces them of his baseness. By Blaise Pascal Men Beasts Nature Convincing Baseness

It is superstitious to put one's hope in formalities, but arrogant to refuse to submit to them. By Blaise Pascal Formalities Superstitious Put Hope Arrogant

This internal war of reason against the passions has made a division of those who would have peace into two sects. The first would renounce their passions, and become gods; the others would renounce reason, and become brute beasts. (Des Barreaux.) [157] But neither can do so, and reason still remains, to condemn the vileness and injustice of the passions, and to trouble the repose of those who abandon themselves to them; and the passions keep always alive in those who would renounce them. By Blaise Pascal Passions Reason Renounce Sects Internal

The last thing we discover in composing a work is what to put down first. By Blaise Pascal Thing Discover Composing Work Put

All our troubles come from not being able to be alone. By Blaise Pascal Troubles

All man's miseries derive from not being able to sit quietly in a room alone. By Blaise Pascal Man Miseries Derive Sit Quietly

We are only falsehood, duplicity, contradiction; we both conceal and disguise ourselves from ourselves. By Blaise Pascal Duplicity Contradiction Falsehood Conceal Disguise

Ecclesiastes shows that man without God is in total ignorance and inevitable misery. By Blaise Pascal God Ecclesiastes Misery Shows Man

If we look at our work immediately after completing it, we are still too involved; if too long afterwards, we cannot pick up the thread again. It By Blaise Pascal Involved Work Immediately Completing Long

There is a God-shaped hole in the life of every man ... By Blaise Pascal Godshaped Man Hole Life

We are fools to depend upon the society of our fellow-men. Wretched as we are, powerless as we are, they will not aid us; we shall die alone. By Blaise Pascal Fellowmen Fools Depend Society Wretched

For, not seeing the whole truth, they could not attain to perfect virtue. Some considering nature as incorrupt, others as incurable, they could not escape either pride or sloth, the two sources of all vice; since they cannot but either abandon themselves to it through cowardice, or escape it by pride. By Blaise Pascal Truth Virtue Attain Perfect Escape

Nothing fortifies scepticism more than the fact that there are some who are not sceptics; if all were so, they would be wrong. By Blaise Pascal Sceptics Wrong Fortifies Scepticism Fact

Making fun of philosophy is really philosophising. By Blaise Pascal Making Philosophising Fun Philosophy

Human beings must be known to be loved; but Divine beings must be loved to be known. By Blaise Pascal Loved Divine Human

No religion except ours has taught that man is born in sin; none of the philosophical sects has admitted it; none therefore has spoken the truth By Blaise Pascal Sin Truth Religion Taught Man

There are two ways of persuading men of the truths of our religion; one by the power of reason, the other by the authority of the speaker.We do not use the latter but the former. We do not say: 'You must believe that because Scripture, which says it, is divine,' but we say that it must be believed for such and such a reason. But these are feeble arguments, because reason can be bent in any direction. By Blaise Pascal Reason Religion Persuading Men Truths

Man is so great that his greatness appears even in the consciousness of his misery. A tree does not know itself to be miserable. It is true that it is misery indeed to know one's self to be miserable; but then it is greatness also. In this way, all man's miseries go to prove his greatness. They are the miseries of a mighty potentate, of a dethroned monarch. By Blaise Pascal Miserable Greatness Great Consciousness Misery

The last thing we decide in writing a book is what to put first. By Blaise Pascal Thing Decide Writing Book Put

All men are almost led to believe not of proof, but by attraction. This way is base, ignoble, and irrelevant; every one therefore disavows it. Each one professes to believe and even to lovenothing but what he knows to be worthy of belief and love. By Blaise Pascal Proof Attraction Men Led Ignoble

What use is it to us to hear it said of a man that he has thrown off the yoke that he does not believe there is a God to watch over his actions, that he reckons himself the sole master of his behavior, and that he does not intend to give an account of it to anyone but himself? By Blaise Pascal God Actions Behavior Hear Man

Il n'est pas certain que tout soit incertain.(Translation: It is not certain that everything is uncertain.) By Blaise Pascal Translation Incertain Uncertain Nest Pas

When we are in love we seem to ourselves quite different from what we were before. By Blaise Pascal Love

To go beyond the bounds of moderation is to outrage humanity. By Blaise Pascal Humanity Bounds Moderation Outrage

Whilst in speaking of human things, we say that it is necessary to know them before we love can them ... the saints on the contrary say in speaking of divine things that it is necessary tolove them in order to know them, and that we only enter truth through charity. By Blaise Pascal Speaking Whilst Things Human Love

Rivers are roads that move and carry us whither we wish to go.[Fr., Les rivieres sont des chemins qui marchant et qui portent ou l'on veut aller.] By Blaise Pascal Les Rivers Aller Qui Roads

Finally, let them recognise that there are two kinds of people one can call reasonable; those who serve God with all their heart because they know Him, and those who seek Him with all their heart because they do not know Him. By Blaise Pascal Heart Finally God Reasonable Recognise

We can only know God well when we know our own sin. And those who have known God without knowing their wretchedness have not glorified Him but have glorified themselves. By Blaise Pascal God Sin Glorified Knowing Wretchedness

One has followed the other in an endless circle, for it is certain that as man's insight increases so he finds both wretchedness and greatness within himself. In a word man knows he is wretched. Thus he is wretched because he is so, but he is truly great because he knows it. By Blaise Pascal Circle Man Endless Insight Increases

The God of Christians is a God of love and comfort, a God who fills the soul and heart of those whom he possesses, a God who makes them conscious of their inward wretchedness, and his infinite mercy; who unites himself to their inmost soul, who fills it with humility and joy, with confidence and love, who renders them incapable of any other end than himself. By Blaise Pascal God Fills Christians Love Soul

Thinking too little about things or thinking too much both make us obstinate and fanatical. By Blaise Pascal Thinking Fanatical Things Make Obstinate

Justice is what is established; and thus all our established laws will necessarily be regarded as just without examination, since they are established. By Blaise Pascal Established Justice Examination Laws Necessarily

If you believe in God you are at no disadvantage in this life, and at considerable advantage in the next. If you do not believe, but find in the next that there was a next, you are most unfortunate! By Blaise Pascal God Life Disadvantage Considerable Advantage

Look somewhere else for someone who can follow you in your researches about numbers. For my part, I confess that they are far beyond me, and I am competent only to admire them. By Blaise Pascal Numbers Follow Researches Part Confess

There is no denying it; one must admit that there is something astonishing about Christianity. 'It is because you were born in it,' they will say. Far from it; I stiffen myself against it for that very reason, for fear of being corrupted by prejudice. But, though I was born in it, I cannot help finding it astonishing. By Blaise Pascal Christianity Denying Admit Born Astonishing

Generally we are occupied either with the miseries which now we feel, or with those which threaten; and even when we see ourselves sufficiently secure from the approach of either, still fretfulness, though unwarranted by either present or expected affliction, fails not to spring up from the deep recesses of the heart, where its roots naturally grow, and to fill the soul with its poison. By Blaise Pascal Generally Feel Threaten Fretfulness Affliction

It is the contest that delights us, and not the victory. By Blaise Pascal Victory Contest Delights

Men never commit evil so fully and joyfully as when they do it for religious convictions. By Blaise Pascal Men Convictions Commit Evil Fully

Reverend Fathers, my letters did not usually follow each other at such close intervals, nor were they so long ... This one would not be so long had I but the leisure to make it shorter. By Blaise Pascal Fathers Reverend Intervals Long Letters

The sweetness of glory is so great that, join it to what we will, even to death, we love it. By Blaise Pascal Join Death Sweetness Glory Great

When malice has reason on its side, it looks forth bravely, and displays that reason in all its luster. When austerity and self-denial have not realized true happiness, and the soul returns to the dictates of nature, the reaction is fearfully extravagant. By Blaise Pascal Reason Side Bravely Luster Malice

How shall one who is so weak in his childhood become really strong when he grows older? We only change our fancies. By Blaise Pascal Older Weak Childhood Strong Grows

The least movement is of importance to all nature. The entire ocean is affected by a pebble. By Blaise Pascal Nature Movement Importance Pebble Entire

We see neither justice nor injustice which does not change its nature with change in climate. Three degrees of latitude reverse all jurisprudence; a meridian decides the truth. By Blaise Pascal Climate Change Justice Injustice Nature

It is certain that those who have the living faith in their hearts see at once that all existence is none other than the work of the God whom they adore. But for those in whom this light is extinguished, [if we were to show them our proofs of the existence of God] nothing is more calculated to arouse their contempt ... By Blaise Pascal God Adore Existence Living Faith

The majority is the best way, because it is visible, and has strength to make itself obeyed. Yet it is the opinion of the least able. By Blaise Pascal Visible Obeyed Majority Strength Make

Education produces natural intuitions, and natural intuitions are erased by education. By Blaise Pascal Natural Intuitions Education Produces Erased

When I see the blind and wretched state of men, when I survey the whole universe in its deadness, and man left to himself with no light, as though lost in this corner of the universe without knowing who put him there, what he has to do, or what will become of him when he dies, incapable of knowing anything, I am moved to terror, like a man transported in his sleep to some terrifying desert island, who wakes up quite lost, with no means of escape. Then I marvel that so wretched a state does not drive people to despair. By Blaise Pascal Universe Man Lost Knowing Men

God is or He is not. But to which side shall we incline? Let us weigh the gain and the lose in wagering that God is. Let us estimate the two changes. If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, lose nothing. Wager then without any hesitation that He is By Blaise Pascal God Gain Lose Incline Side

Belief is a wise wager. Granted that faith cannot be proved, what harm will come to you if you gamble on its truth and it proves false? If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager, then, without hesitation, that He exists. By Blaise Pascal Belief Wager Wise Gain Lose

Inconstancy. - Things have different qualities, and the soul different inclinations; for nothing is simple which is presented to the soul, and the soul never presents itself simply to any object. Hence it comes that we weep and laugh at the same thing. By Blaise Pascal Inconstancy Soul Things Thing Qualities

Fire. God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, not of the philosophers and the scholars. I will not forget thy word. Amen. By Blaise Pascal God Fire Abraham Isaac Jacob

If he exalts himself, I humble him.If he humbles himself, I exalt him.And I go on contradicting himUntil he understandsThat he is a monster that passes all understanding. By Blaise Pascal Understanding Himif Himand Contradicting Himuntil

Nobody is publicly accepted as an expert on poetry unless he displays the sign of poet, mathematician, etc., but universal men want no sign and make hardly any distinction between the crafts of poet and embroiderer.Universal men are not called poets or mathematicians, etc. But they are all these things and judges of them too. No one could guess what they are, and they will talk about whatever was being talked about when they came in. One quality is not more noticeable in them than another, unless it becomes necessary to put it into practice, and then we remember it. By Blaise Pascal Poet Sign Men Etc Mathematician

Extremes are for us as though they were not, and we are not within their notice. They escape us, or we them. This is our true state; this is what makes us incapable of certain knowledge and of absolute ignorance ... This is our natural condition, and yet most contrary to our inclination; we burn with desire to find solid ground and an ultimate sure foundation whereon to build a tower reaching to the Infinite. But our whole groundwork cracks, and the earth opens to abysses. By Blaise Pascal Extremes Notice Infinite Escape State

If it is an extraordinary blindness to live without investigating what we are, it is a terrible one to live an evil life, while believing in God By Blaise Pascal God Live Life Extraordinary Blindness

If god does not exist, one loses nothing by believing in him anyway, while if he does exist, one stands to lose everything by not believing. By Blaise Pascal Exist Believing God Stands Loses

I have spent much time in the study of the abstract sciences; but the paucity of persons with whom you can communicate on such subjects disgusted me with them. When I began to study man, I saw that these abstract sciences are not suited to him, and that in diving into them, I wandered farther from my real object than those who knew them not, and I forgave them for not having attended to these things. I expected then, however, that I should find some companions in the study of man, since it was so specifically a duty. I was in error. There are fewer students of man than of geometry. By Blaise Pascal Study Abstract Sciences Man Spent

This dog is mine," said those poor children; "that is my place in the sun." Here is the beginning and the image of the usurpation of all the earth. By Blaise Pascal Mine Children Sun Dog Poor

[Unbelievers] think they have made great efforts to get at the truth when they have spent a few hours in reading some book out of Holy Scripture, and have questioned some cleric about the truths of the faith. After that, they boast that they have searched in books and among men in vain. By Blaise Pascal Unbelievers Scripture Holy Faith Truth

As I write down my thought it sometimes escapes me, but that reminds me of my weakness, which I am always forgetting, and teaches me as much as my forgotten thought, for I care only about knowing that I am nothing. By Blaise Pascal Thought Weakness Forgetting Write Escapes

As we speak of poetical beauty, so ought we to speak of mathematical beauty and medical beauty. But we do not do so; and that reason is that we know well what is the object of mathematics, and that it consists in proofs, and what is the object of medicine, and that it consists in healing. But we do not know in what grace consists, which is the object of poetry. By Blaise Pascal Beauty Speak Object Consists Poetical

The secrets of nature are concealed; her agency is perpetual, but we do not always discover its effects; time reveals them from age to age; and although she is always the same in herself, she is not always equally well known. By Blaise Pascal Age Concealed Perpetual Effects Time

Je ne crois que les histoires dont les te moins se feraient e gorger. I only believe in histories told by witnesses who would have had their throats slit. By Blaise Pascal Gorger Les Crois Histoires Dont

Thus men who are naturally conscious of what they are shun nothing, so much as rest; they would do anything to be disturbed. By Blaise Pascal Rest Disturbed Men Naturally Conscious

Imagination disposes of everything; it creates beauty, justice, and happiness, which are everything in this world. By Blaise Pascal Justice Imagination Beauty Happiness World

There is no arena in which vanity displays itself under such a variety of forms as in conversation. By Blaise Pascal Conversation Arena Vanity Displays Variety

It is much better to know something about everything than to know everything about one thing. By Blaise Pascal Thing

Men are so necessarily mad, that not to be mad would amount to another form of madness. By Blaise Pascal Men Madness Mad Necessarily Amount

Force rules the world-not opinion; but it is opinion that makes use of force. By Blaise Pascal Force Opinion Rules Worldnot Makes

The sum of a man's problems come from his inability to be alone in a silent room. By Blaise Pascal Room Sum Man Problems Inability

We feel neither extreme heat nor extreme cold; qualities that are in excess are so much at variance with our feelings that they are impalpable: we do not feel them, though we suffer from their effects. By Blaise Pascal Feel Extreme Cold Qualities Impalpable

Philosophers.-We are full of things which take us out of ourselves. By Blaise Pascal Philosophers Full Things

Since we cannot know all there is to be known about anything, we ought to know a little about everything. By Blaise Pascal

What astonishes us most is to observe that everyone is not astonished at his own weakness. By Blaise Pascal Weakness Astonishes Observe Astonished

Nature, which alone is good, is wholly familiar and common. By Blaise Pascal Nature Good Common Wholly Familiar

Man's sensitivity to little things and insensitivity to the greatest things are marks of a strange disorder. By Blaise Pascal Man Disorder Things Sensitivity Insensitivity

Fear not, provided you fear; but if you fear not, then fear. By Blaise Pascal Fear Provided

The motions of Grace, the hardness of heart; external circumstances. By Blaise Pascal Grace Heart External Circumstances Motions

We never do evil so fully and cheerfully as when we do it out of conscience. By Blaise Pascal Conscience Evil Fully Cheerfully

Which is the more believable of the two, Moses or China? By Blaise Pascal Moses China Believable

Our own interests are still an exquisite means for dazzling our eyes agreeably. By Blaise Pascal Agreeably Interests Exquisite Dazzling Eyes

Nothing is so conformable to reason as to disavow reason. By Blaise Pascal Reason Conformable Disavow

Nature is an infinite sphere of which the center is everywhere and the circumference nowhere. By Blaise Pascal Nature Infinite Sphere Center Circumference

That something so obvious as the vanity of the world should be so little recognized that people find it odd and surprising to be told that it is foolish to seek greatness; that is most remarkable. By Blaise Pascal Greatness Remarkable Obvious Vanity World

Rivers are highways that move on and bear us whither we wish to go. By Blaise Pascal Rivers Highways Move Bear

The immortality of the soul is a matter which is of so great consequence to us, and which touches us so profoundly, that we must have lost all feeling to be indifferent as to knowing what it is. By Blaise Pascal Profoundly Immortality Soul Matter Great

All mankind's troubles are caused by one single thing, which is their inability to sit quietly. By Blaise Pascal Thing Quietly Mankind Troubles Caused

All of man's problems come from the inability to sit quietly in a room. By Blaise Pascal Room Man Problems Inability Sit

It is not shameful for a man to succumb to pain and it is shameful to succumb to pleasure. By Blaise Pascal Succumb Shameful Pleasure Man Pain

Imagination cannot make fools wise, but it makes them happy, as against reason, which only makes its friends wretched: one covers them with glory, the other with shame. By Blaise Pascal Imagination Wise Happy Reason Wretched

There are only three types of people; those who have found God and serve him; those who have not found God and seek him, and those who live not seeking, or finding him. The first are rational and happy; the second unhappy and rational, and the third foolish and unhappy. By Blaise Pascal God Found People Seeking Types

Justice without force is powerless; force without justice is tyrannical. By Blaise Pascal Powerless