Blaise Pascal Quotes
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Our achievements of today are but the sum total of our thoughts of yesterday. You are today where the thoughts of yesterday have brought you and you will be tomorrow where the thoughts of today take you.
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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.
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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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Vanity is but the surface.
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To understand is to forgive.
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The heart has its reasons of which reason knows nothing.
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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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All the trouble in the world is due to the fact that man cannot sit still in a room.
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Men seek rest in a struggle against difficulties; and when they have conquered these, rest becomes insufferable.
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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.
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Man is nothing but insincerity, falsehood, and hypocrisy, both in regard to himself and in regard to others. He does not wish that he should be told the truth, he shuns saying it to others; and all these moods, so inconsistent with justice and reason, have their roots in his heart.
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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.
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Words differently arranged have a different meaning, and meanings differently arranged have different effects.
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To speak freely of mathematics, I find it the highest exercise of the spirit; but at the same time I know that it is so useless that I make little distinction between a man who is only a mathematician and a common artisan. Also, I call it the most beautiful profession in the world; but it is only a profession.
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I maintain that, if everyone knew what others said about him, there would not be four friends in the world.
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All our troubles come from not being able to be alone.
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There are two equally dangerous extremes-to shut reason out, and to let nothing else in.
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Once your soul has been enlarged by a truth, it can never return to its original size.
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There is a lot of difference between tempting and leading into error. God tempts but does not lead into error. To tempt is to provide opportunities for us to do certain things if we do not love God, but putting us under no necessity to do so. To lead into error is to compel a man necessarily to conclude and follow a falsehood.
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All that tends not to charity is figurative. The sole aim of the Scripture is charity.
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All I know is that I must soon die, but what I know least is this very death which I cannot escape.
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It is not shameful for a man to succumb to pain and it is shameful to succumb to pleasure.
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Curiosity is only vanity. Most frequently we wish not to know, but to talk. We would not take a sea voyage for the sole pleasure of seeing without hope of ever telling.
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Each one is all in all to himself; for being dead, all is dead to him.