Blaise Pascal Quotes
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Evil is easily discovered; there is an infinite variety; good is almost unique. But some kinds of evil are almost as difficult to discover as that which we call good; and often particular evil of this class passes for good. It needs even a certain greatness of soul to attain to this, as to that which is good.
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The serene, silent beauty of a holy life is the most powerful influence in the world, next to the night of God.
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Let each of us examine his thoughts.
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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.
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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.
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Extremes are for us as if they were not, and as if we were not in regard to them; they escape from us, or we from them.
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If man should commence by studying himself, he would see how impossible it is to go further.
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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.
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Nothing is more dastardly than to act with bravado toward God.
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To find recreation in amusement is not happiness.
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The last thing we decide in writing a book is what to put first.
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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.
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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.
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Religion is so great a thing that it is right that those who will not take the trouble to seek it if it be obscure, should be deprived of it.
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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.
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Habit is a second nature that destroys the first. But what is nature? Why is habit not natural? I am very much afraid that nature itself is only a first habit, just as habit is a second nature.
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All the miseries of mankind come from one thing, not knowing how to remain alone.
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There is no arena in which vanity displays itself under such a variety of forms as in conversation.
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Do you wish people to think well of you? Don't speak well of yourself.
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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.
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It's not those who write the laws that have the greatest impact on society. It's those who write the songs.
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The best defense against logic is ignorance.
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Our own interests are still an exquisite means for dazzling our eyes agreeably.
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He that takes truth for his guide, and duty for his end, may safely trust to God's providence to lead him aright.