Blaise Pascal Quotes
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Il y a deux sortes d'esprits, l'un ge ome trique, et l'autre que l'on peut appeler de finesse. Le premier a des vues lentes, dures et inflexibles; mais le dernier a une souplesse de pense e. There are two kinds of mind, one mathematical, the other what one might call the intuitive. The first takes a slow, firm, inflexible view, but the latter has flexibility of thought.
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All men seek happiness. This is without exception. Whatever different means they employ, they all tend to this end. The cause of some going to war, and of others avoiding it, is the same desire in both, attended with different views. The will never takes the least step but to this object. This is the motive of every action of every man, even of those who hang themselves.
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Not to be mad is another form of madness.
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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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It is a dangerous experiment to call in gratitude as an ally to love. Love is a debt which inclination always pays, obligation never.
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If god does not exist, one loses nothing by believing in him anyway, while if he does exist, one stands to lose everything by not believing.
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Jesus Christ came to tell men that they have no enemies but themselves.
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The truth about nature we discover with our brains. The truth about religion we discover with our hearts.
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Too much and too little wine. Give him none, he cannot find truth; give him too much, the same.
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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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Let us now speak according to natural lights. If there is a God, He is infinitely incomprehensible. . . . We are then incapable of knowing of either what He is or if He is. . . .
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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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Those who do not hate their own selfishness and regard themselves as more important than the rest of the world are blind because the truth lies elsewhere.
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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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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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Quand on voit le style naturel, on est tout e tonne et ravi, car on s'attendait de voir un auteur, et on trouve un homme. When we see a natural style we are quite amazed and delighted, because we expected to see an author and find a man.
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Men blaspheme what they do not know.
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Eloquence; it requires the pleasant and the real; but the pleasant must itself be drawn from the true.
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Silence. All human unhappiness comes from not knowing how to stay quietly in a room.
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Curiosity is only vanity. We usually only want to know something so that we can talk about it.
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Je ne crois que les histoires dont les te moins se feraient e gorger. I only believe in histories told by witnesses who would have had their throats slit.
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We are never in search of things, but always in search of the search.
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It has pleased God that divine verities should not enter the heart through the understanding, but the understanding through the heart.
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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.