Blaise Pascal Quotes
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Faith indeed tells what the senses do not tell, but not the contrary of what they see. It is above them and not contrary to them.
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Eloquence is a way of saying things in such a way, first, that those to whom we speak may listen to them without pain and with pleasure, and second, that they feel themselves interested, so that self-love leads them more willingly to reflection upon it.
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Quelque e tendue d'esprit que l'on ait, l'on n'est capable que d'une grande passion. However vast a man's spirit, he is only capable of one great passion.
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We are only falsehood, duplicity, contradiction; we both conceal and disguise ourselves from ourselves.
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The sweetness of glory is so great that, join it to what we will, even to death, we love 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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Equality of possessions is no doubt right, but, as men could not make might obey right, they have made right obey might.
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The God of the infinite is the God of the infinitesimal.
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All the troubles of life come upon us because we refuse to sit quietly for a while each day in our rooms.
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It is not good to be too free. It is not good to have all one wants.
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The more intelligent a man is, the more originality he discovers in others.
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Since we cannot be universal and know all that is to be known of everything, we ought to know a little about everything. For it is far better to know something about everything than to know all about one thing. This universality is the best. If we can have both, still better; but if we must choose, we ought to choose the former.
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The arithmetical machine produces effects that approach nearer to thought than all the actions of animals. But it does nothing that would enable us to attribute will to it, as to the animals.
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We are usually convinced more easily by reasons we have found ourselves than by those which have occurred to others.
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Philosophers.-We are full of things which take us out of ourselves.
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Rivers are highways that move on and bear us whither we wish to go.
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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.
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Man is obviously made for thinking. Therein lies all his dignity and his merit; and his whole duty is to think as he ought.
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Atheism shows strength of mind, but only to a certain degree.
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True eloquence scorns eloquence.
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Justice is as much a matter of fashion as charm is.
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I have made this letter longer than usual, only because I have not had the time to make it shorter.
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Our own interests are still an exquisite means for dazzling our eyes agreeably.
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What can be seen on earth points to neither the total absence nor the obvious presence of divinity, but to the presence of a hidden God. Everything bears this mark.