Blaise Pascal Quotes
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Since [man] is infinitely removed from comprehending the extremes, the end of things and their beginning are hopelessly hidden from him in an impenetrable secret; he is equally incapable of seeing the nothing from which he was made, and the infinite in which he is swallowed up.
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Our nature consists in motion; complete rest is death.
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Jesus was in a garden, not of delight as the first Adam, in which he destroyed himself and the whole human race, but in one of agony, in which he saved himself and the whole human race.
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The greatness of man is so evident that it is even proved by his wretchedness. For what in animals is nature, we call in man wretchedness--by which we recognize that, his nature being now like that of animals, he has fallen from a better nature which once was his.
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The world is satisfied with words. Few appreciate the things beneath. [Fr., Le monde se paye de paroles; peu approfondissement les choses.]
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Meanings receive their dignity from words instead of giving it to them.
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Law was once introduced without reason, and has become reasonable.
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A jester, a bad character.
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True eloquence makes light of eloquence. True morality makes light of morality.
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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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There are vices which have no hold upon us, but in connection with others; and which, when you cut down the trunk, fall like the branches.
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Imagination cannot make fools wise, but it makes them happy, as against reason, which only makes its friends wretched: one covers them with glory, the other with shame.
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Just as all things speak about God to those that know Him, and reveal Him to those that love Him, they also hide Him from all those that neither seek nor know Him.
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Who knows if this other half of life where we think we're awake is not another sleep a little different from the first.
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Look for the truth, it wants to be found.
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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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The greatest single distinguishing feature of the omnipotence of God is that our imagination gets lost thinking about it.
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There are two equally dangerous extremes-to shut reason out, and to let nothing else in.
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So we can only know God well by knowing our iniquities. Therefore those who have known God, without knowing their wretchedness, have not glorified Him, but have glorified themselves.
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Eloquence is a painting of the thoughts.
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Let each of us examine his thoughts; he will find them wholly concerned with the past or the future. We almost never think of the present, and if we do think of it, it is only to see what light is throws on our plans for the future. The present is never our end. The past and the present are our means, the future alone our end. Thus we never actually live, but hope to live, and since we are always planning how to be happy, it is inevitable that we should never be so.
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How hollow is the heart of man, and how full of excrement!
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To call a king "Prince" is pleasing, because it diminishes his rank.
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Why God has instituted Prayer:— To communicate to his creatures the dignity of causation.