Blaise Pascal Quotes
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Do not imagine that it is less an accident by which you find yourself master of the wealth which you possess, than that by which this man found himself king.
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Custom creates the whole of equity, for the simple reason that it is accepted.
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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 feelings--their nature, which is stronger than all, convincing them of the greatness of man more forcibly than reason convinces them of his baseness.
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Je n'ai fait celle-ci plus longue que parce que je n'ai pas eu le loisir de la faire plus courte.
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We never love a person, but only qualities.
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God has given us evidence sufficiently clear to convince those with an open heart and mind.
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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.
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To find recreation in amusements is not happiness; for this joy springs from alien and extrinsic sources, and is therefore dependent upon and subject to interruption by a thousand accidents, which may minister inevitable affliction.
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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.
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Everyone, without exception, is searching for happiness.
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People almost invariably arrive at their beliefs not on the basis of proof but on the basis of what they find attractive.
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It is the contest that delights us, and not the victory.
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Plurality which is not reduced to unity is confusion; unity which does not depend on plurality is tyranny.
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Rivers are roads which move, and which carry us whither we desire to go.
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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 find their 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.
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The art of persuasion consists as much in that of pleasing as in that of convincing, so much more are men governed by caprice than by reason!
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Curiosity is nothing more than vanity. More often than not we only seek knowledge to show it off.
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Fashion is a tyrant from which nothing frees us. We must suit ourselves to its fantastic tastes. But being compelled to live under its foolish laws, the wise man is never the first to follow, nor the last to keep it.
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All of our miseries prove our greatness. They are the miseries of a dethroned monarch.
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If we regulate our conduct according to our own convictions, we may safely disregard the praise or censure of others.
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We must make good people wish that the Christian faith were true, and then show that it is.
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It is not from space that I must seek my dignity, but from the government of my thought. I shall have no more if I possess worlds. By space the universe encompasses and swallows me up like an atom; by thought I comprehend the world.
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I bring you the gift of these four words: I believe in you.
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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.