Blaise Pascal Quotes
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Most of the evils of life arise from man's being unable to sit still in a room.
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Truth is so obscure in these times, and falsehood so established, that, unless we love the truth, we cannot know it.
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He who does not know his way to the sea should take a river for his guide.
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Without the knowledge of our wretchedness, the knowledge of God creates pride. With it, the knowledge of God creates despair. The knowledge of Christ offers a third way, because in him we find both God and our wretchedness.
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Le moi est ha|«s sable. The self is hateful.
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Nothing is so intolerable to man as being fully at rest, without a passion, without business, without entertainment, without care.
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The more intelligence one has, the more people one finds original. Commonplace people see no difference between men.
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Beauty is a harmonious relation between something in our nature and the quality of the object which delights us.
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How shall one who is so weak in his childhood become really strong when he grows older? We only change our fancies.
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No soul of high estate can take pleasure in slander. It betrays a weakness.
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Everything that is written merely to please the author is worthless.
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Eloquence is a painting of the thoughts.
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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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If our condition were truly happy, we would not need diversion from thinking of it in order to make ourselves happy.
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Having been unable to strengthen justice, we have justified strength.
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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.]
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Il n'y a que deux sortes d'hommes: les uns justes, qui se croient pe cheurs; les autres pe cheurs, qui se croient justes. There are only two types of people: the virtuous who believe themselves to be sinners and the sinners who believe themselves to be virtuous.
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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.]
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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.]
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Things are always at their best in their beginning.
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Truly it is an evil to be full of faults; but it is a still greater evil to be full of them and to be unwilling to recognize them, since that is to add the further fault of a voluntary illusion.
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If I believe in God and life after death and you do not, and if there is no God, we both lose when we die. However, if there is a God, you still lose and I gain everything.
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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.
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The great mass of people judge well of things, for they are in natural ignorance, which is man's true state.