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Having been unable to strengthen justice, we have justified strength.
Blaise Pascal -
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?
Blaise Pascal
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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.]
Blaise Pascal -
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.
Blaise Pascal -
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.
Blaise Pascal -
Vanity is so anchored in the heart of man that a soldier, a soldier's servant, a cook, a porter brags and wishes to have his admirers. Even philosophers wish for them. Those who write against vanity want to have the glory of having written well; and those who read it desire the glory of having read it. I who write this have perhaps this desire, and perhaps those who will read it.
Blaise Pascal -
There are two equally dangerous extremes-to shut reason out, and to let nothing else in.
Blaise Pascal -
Is it courage in a dying man to go, in weakness and in agony, to affront an almighty and eternal God?
Blaise Pascal
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If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager, then, without hesitation, that He exists.
Blaise Pascal -
Philosophers.-We are full of things which take us out of ourselves.
Blaise Pascal -
Those we call the ancients were really new in everything.
Blaise Pascal -
The God of the infinite is the God of the infinitesimal.
Blaise Pascal -
The stream is always purer at its source. [Fr., Les choses valent toujours mieux dans leur source.]
Blaise Pascal -
The finite is annihilated in the presence of the infinite, and becomes a pure nothing. So our spirit before God, so our justice before divine justice.
Blaise Pascal
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Reverend Fathers, my letters did not usually follow each other at such close intervals, nor were they so long.... This one would not be so long had I but the leisure to make it shorter.
Blaise Pascal -
Vanity of science. Knowledge of physical science will not console me for ignorance of morality in time of affliction, but knowledge of morality will always console me for ignorance of physical science.
Blaise Pascal -
All the excesses, all the violence, and all the vanity of great men, come from the fact that they know not what they are: it being difficult for those who regard themselves at heart as equal with all men... For this it is necessary for one to forget himself, and to believe that he has some real excellence above them, in which consists this illusion that I am endeavoring to discover to you.
Blaise Pascal -
True eloquence makes light of eloquence, true morality makes light of morality; that is to say, the morality of the judgment, which has no rules, makes light of the morality of the intellect.... To make light of philosophy is to be a true philosopher.
Blaise Pascal -
All our dignity lies in our thoughts.
Blaise Pascal -
True eloquence scorns eloquence.
Blaise Pascal
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Nothing is thoroughly approved but mediocrity. The majority has established this, and it fixes its fangs on whatever gets beyond it either way.
Blaise Pascal -
The knowledge of God is very far from the love of Him.
Blaise Pascal -
The strength of a man's virtue should not be measured by his special exertions, but by his habitual acts.
Blaise Pascal -
How shall one who is so weak in his childhood become really strong when he grows older? We only change our fancies.
Blaise Pascal