Blaise Pascal Quotes
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Those who are clever in imagination are far more pleased with themselves than prudent men could reasonably be.
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Nothing is surer than that the people will be weak.
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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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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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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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Why God has instituted Prayer:— To communicate to his creatures the dignity of causation.
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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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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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True eloquence makes light of eloquence. True morality makes light of morality.
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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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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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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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A jester, a bad character.
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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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We are only troubled by the fears which we, and not nature, give ourselves, for they add to the state in which we are the passions of the state in which we are not.
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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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The greatest single distinguishing feature of the omnipotence of God is that our imagination gets lost thinking about it.
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Look for the truth, it wants to be found.
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Our nature consists in motion; complete rest is death.
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To call a king "Prince" is pleasing, because it diminishes his rank.
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Since we cannot know all that there is to be known about anything, we ought to know a little about everything.
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Either Christianity is true or it's false. If you bet that it's true, and you believe in God and submit to Him, then if it IS true, you've gained God, heaven, and everything else. If it's false, you've lost nothing, but you've had a good life marked by peace and the illusion that ultimately, everything makes sense. If you bet that Christianity is not true, and it's false, you've lost nothing. But if you bet that it's false, and it turns out to be true, you've lost everything and you get to spend eternity in hell.
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There are two equally dangerous extremes-to shut reason out, and to let nothing else in.
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Eloquence is a painting of the thoughts.