Blaise Pascal Quotes
-
In each action we must look beyond the action at our past, present, and future state, and at others whom it affects, and see the relations of all those things. And then we shall be very cautious.
-
That queen, of error, whom we call fancy and opinion, is the more deceitful because she does not always deceive. She would be the infallible rule of truth if she were the infallible rule of falsehood; but being only most frequently in error, she gives no evidence of her real quality, for she marks with the same character both that which is true and that which is false.
-
Few friendships would survive if each one knew what his friend says of him behind his back.
-
The heart has its order, the mind has its own, which uses principles and demonstrations. The heart has a different one. We do not prove that we ought to be loved by setting out in order the causes of love; that would be absurd.
-
The supreme function of reason is to show man that some things are beyond reason.
-
The parts of the universe ... all are connected with each other in such a way that I think it to be impossible to understand any one without the whole.
-
Description of man: dependence, longing for independence, need.
-
You always admire what you really don't understand.
-
Words differently arranged have a different meaning, and meanings differently arranged have different effects.
-
It is the heart which perceives God and not the reason. That is what faith is: God perceived by the heart, not by the reason.
-
The knowledge of God is very far from the love of Him.
-
Not only do we know God through Jesus Christ, we only know ourselves through Jesus Christ.
-
(Man,) the glory and the scandal of the universe.
-
I maintain that, if everyone knew what others said about him, there would not be four friends in the world.
-
Human beings must be known to be loved; but Divine beings must be loved to be known.
-
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.
-
Each one is all in all to himself; for being dead, all is dead to him.
-
If a man is not made for God, why is he happy only in God?
-
Jesus Christ came to tell men that they have no enemies but themselves.
-
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.
-
The truth about nature we discover with our brains. The truth about religion we discover with our hearts.
-
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.
-
Not to be mad is another form of madness.
-
All I know is that I must soon die, but what I know least is this very death which I cannot escape.