Blaise Pascal Quotes
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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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The heart has its reasons of which reason knows nothing.
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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 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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Lust is the source of all our actions, and humanity.
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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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All the trouble in the world is due to the fact that man cannot sit still in a room.
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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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It is not shameful for a man to succumb to pain and it is shameful to succumb to pleasure.
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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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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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Words differently arranged have a different meaning, and meanings differently arranged have different effects.
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The more intelligent a man is, the more originality he discovers in others.
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We do not rest satisfied with the present.... So imprudent we are that we wander in the times which are not ours and do not thinkof the only one which belongs to us; and so idle are we that we dream of those times which are no more and thoughtlessly overlook that which alone exists. For the present is generally painful to us.
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Each one is all in all to himself; for being dead, all is dead to him.
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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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To understand is to forgive.
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There are two equally dangerous extremes-to shut reason out, and to let nothing else in.
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All that tends not to charity is figurative. The sole aim of the Scripture is charity.
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The last thing that we find in making a book is to know what we must put first.
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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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Force rules the world-not opinion; but it is opinion that makes use of force.
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It is not our task to secure the triumph of truth, but merely to fight on its behalf.
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Chance gives rise to thoughts, and chance removes them; no art can keep or acquire them.