Blaise Pascal Quotes - Page 2

People almost invariably arrive at their beliefs not on the basis of proof but on the basis of what they find attractive.
Blaise Pascal
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.
Blaise Pascal
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.
Blaise Pascal
In every action we must look beyond the action at our past, present and future state, and at others whom it affects, and see the relations of all these things.
Blaise Pascal
Eloquence.— We need both what is pleasing and what is real, but that which pleases must itself be drawn from the true.
Blaise Pascal
What a Chimera is man! What a novelty, a monster, a chaos, a contradiction, a prodigy! Judge of all things, an imbecile worm; depository of truth, and sewer of error and doubt; the glory and refuse of the universe.
Blaise Pascal
The art of opposition and of revolution is to unsettle established customs, sounding them even to their source, to point out their want of authority and justice.
Blaise Pascal
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.
Blaise Pascal
Men seek rest in a struggle against difficulties; and when they have conquered these, rest becomes insufferable.
Blaise Pascal
All men's miseries derive from not being able to sit quiet in a room alone.
Blaise Pascal
The last thing one knows when writing a book is what to put first.
Blaise Pascal
Eloquence is painted thought, and thus those who, after having painted it, add somewhat more, make a picture, not a portrait.
Blaise Pascal
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.
Blaise Pascal
People are generally better persuaded by the reasons which they have themselves discovered than by those which have come into the mind of others.
Blaise Pascal
Curiosity is only vanity. We usually only want to know something so that we can talk about it.
Blaise Pascal
Kind words do not cost much. Yet they accomplish much
Blaise Pascal
If man studied himself, he would see how incapable he is of going further.
Blaise Pascal
Few men speak humbly of humility, chastely of chastity, skeptically of skepticism.
Blaise Pascal
People often mistake their imagination for their heart, & so often are convinced they are converted as soon as they start thinking of becoming converted.
Blaise Pascal
Man is but a reed, the weakest in nature, but he is a thinking reed.
Blaise Pascal
The knowledge of God without that of man's misery causes pride. The knowledge of man's misery without that of God causes despair. The knowledge of Jesus Christ is the middle course, because in Him we find both God and our misery.
Blaise Pascal
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...?
Blaise Pascal
Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.
Blaise Pascal
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.
Blaise Pascal
Kind words produce their images on men's souls.
Blaise Pascal
Men are so inevitably mad that not to be mad would be to give a mad twist to madness.
Blaise Pascal
God instituted prayer to communicate to creatures the dignity of causality.
Blaise Pascal
If we examine our thoughts, we shall find them always occupied with the past and the future.
Blaise Pascal
The last thing we discover in composing a work is what to put down first.
Blaise Pascal
We do not content ourselves with the life we have in ourselves and in our own being; we desire to live an imaginary life in the mind of others, and for this purpose we endeavour to shine. We labour unceasingly to adorn and preserve this imaginary existence, and neglect the real. And if we possess calmness, or generosity, or truthfulness, we are eager to make it known, so as to attach these virtues to that imaginary existence. We would rather separate them from ourselves to join them to it; and we would willingly be cowards in order to acquire the reputation of being brave. A great proof of the nothingness of our being, not to be satisfied with the one without the other, and to renounce the one for the other! For he would be infamous who would not die to preserve his honour.
Blaise Pascal
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.
Blaise Pascal
Our intellect holds the same position in the world of thought as our body occupies in the expanse of nature.
Blaise Pascal
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.
Blaise Pascal
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.
Blaise Pascal
All things can be deadly to us, even the things made to serve us; as in nature walls can kill us, and stairs can kill us, if we do not walk circumspectly.
Blaise Pascal
Those honor nature well, who teach that she can speak on everything.
Blaise Pascal
Nature has made all her truths independent of one another. Our art makes one dependent on the other.
Blaise Pascal
Lust is the source of all our actions, and humanity.
Blaise Pascal
I would prefer an intelligent hell to a stupid paradise.
Blaise Pascal
When we read too fast or too slowly, we understand nothing.
Blaise Pascal
There is a certain standard of grace and beauty which consists in a certain relation between our nature... and the thing which pleases us.
Blaise Pascal
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.
Blaise Pascal
All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.
Blaise Pascal
Few friendships would survive if each one knew what his friend says of him behind his back
Blaise Pascal
He no longer loves the person whom he loved ten years ago. I quite believe it. She is no longer the same, nor is he. He was young, and she also; she is quite different. He would perhaps love her yet, if she were what she was then.
Blaise Pascal
Men spend their time in following a ball or a hare it is the pleasure even of kings.
Blaise Pascal
He no longer loves the person whom he loved ten years ago. I quite believe it. She is no longer the same, nor is he. He was young, and she also; she is quite different. He would perhaps love her yet, if she were what she was then.
Blaise Pascal
Men spend their time in following a ball or a hare it is the pleasure even of kings.
Blaise Pascal
Since we cannot know all there is to be known about anything, we ought to know a little about everything.
Blaise Pascal
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
Blaise Pascal
There are three sources of belief: reason, custom, inspiration.
Blaise Pascal
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.
Blaise Pascal
If we submit everything to reason our religion will be left with nothing mysterious or supernatural. If we offend the principles of reason our religion will be absurd and ridiculous . . . There are two equally dangerous extremes: to exclude reason, to admit nothing but reason.
Blaise Pascal
The last thing one discovers in composing a work is what to put first.
Blaise Pascal
Love knows no limit to its endurance, no end to its trust, no fading of its hope; it can outlast anything. Love still stands when all else has fallen.
Blaise Pascal
Fire. God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, not of the philosophers and the scholars. I will not forget thy word. Amen.
Blaise Pascal
Contradiction is not a sign of falsity, nor the lack of contradiction a sign of truth.
Blaise Pascal
He that takes truth for his guide, and duty for his end, may safely trust to God's providence to lead him aright
Blaise Pascal
It is man's natural sickness to believe that he possesses the truth.
Blaise Pascal
Truth is so obscure in these times, and falsehood so established, that, unless we love the truth, we cannot know it.
Blaise Pascal