Blaise Pascal Quotes
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Truly it is an evil to be full of faults; but it is a still greater evil to be full of them and to be unwilling to recognize them, since that is to add the further fault of a voluntary illusion.
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(Man,) the glory and the scandal of the universe.
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Chance gives rise to thoughts, and chance removes them; no art can keep or acquire them.
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You always admire what you really don't understand.
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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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That a religion may be true, it must have knowledge of our nature.
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Force rules the world-not opinion; but it is opinion that makes use of force.
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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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The truth about nature we discover with our brains. The truth about religion we discover with our hearts.
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Ugly deeds are most estimable when hidden.
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Knowing God without knowing our own wretchedness makes for pride. Knowing our own wretchedness without knowing God makes for despair. Knowing Jesus Christ strikes the balance because he shows us both God and our own wretchedness.
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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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Jesus Christ came to tell men that they have no enemies but themselves.
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All our troubles come from not being able to be alone.
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Words differently arranged have a different meaning, and meanings differently arranged have different effects.
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Not only do we know God through Jesus Christ, we only know ourselves through Jesus Christ.
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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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Description of man: dependence, longing for independence, need.
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Each one is all in all to himself; for being dead, all is dead to him.
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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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Not to be mad is another form of madness.
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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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All men naturally hate one another. I hold it a fact, that if men knew exactly what one says of the other, there would not be four friends in the world.
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We like to be deceived.