Blaise Pascal Quotes
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One must know oneself. If this does not serve to discover truth, it at least serves as a rule of life and there is nothing better.
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It is dangerous to explain too clearly to man how like he is to the animals without pointing out his greatness. It is also dangerous to make too much of his greatness without his vileness. It is still more dangerous to leave him in ignorance of both, but it is most valuable to represent both to him. Man must not be allowed to believe that he is equal either to animals or to angels, nor to be unaware of either, but he must know both.
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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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Parents fear the destruction of natural affection in their children. What is this natural principle so liable to decay? Habit is a second nature, which destroys the first. Why is not custom nature? I suspect that this nature itself is but a first custom, as custom is a second nature.
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You always admire what you really don't understand.
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It is not in Montaigne, but in myself, that I find all that I see in him.
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It is of dangerous consequence to represent to man how near he is to the level of beasts, without showing him at the same time his greatness. It is likewise dangerous to let him see his greatness without his meanness. It is more dangerous yet to leave him ignorant of either; but very beneficial that he should be made sensible of both.
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And is it not obvious that, just as it is a crime to disturb the peace when truth reigns, it is also a crime to remain at peace when the truth is being destroyed?
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The property of power is to protect.
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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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Undoubtedly equality of goods is just; but, being unable to cause might to obey justice, men has made it just to obey might. Unable to strengthen justice, they have justified might--so that the just and the strong should unite, and there should be peace, which is the sovereign good.
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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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All man's troubles come from not knowing how to sit still in one room.
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That which makes us go so far for love is that we never think that we might have need of anything besides that which we love.
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Happiness is neither within us, nor without us. It is in the union of ourselves with God.
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Apart from Jesus Christ, we do not know what is our life, nor our death, nor God, nor ourselves.
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Most of man's trouble comes from his inability to be still.
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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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Man's greatness lies in his power of thought.
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The God of Christians is a God of love and comfort, a God who fills the soul and heart of those whom he possesses, a God who makes them conscious of their inward wretchedness, and his infinite mercy; who unites himself to their inmost soul, who fills it with humility and joy, with confidence and love, who renders them incapable of any other end than himself.
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Instead of complaining that God had hidden himself, you will give Him thanks for having revealed so much of Himself.
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True eloquence scorns eloquence.
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We are only falsehood, duplicity, contradiction; we both conceal and disguise ourselves from ourselves.
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Therefore, those to whom God has imparted religion by intuition are very fortunate and justly convinced. But to those who do not have it, we can give it only by reasoning, waiting for God to give them spiritual insight, without which faith is only human and useless for salvation.