Blaise Pascal Quotes
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Mediocrity makes the most of its native possessions.
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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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The greater intellect one has, the more originality one finds in men. Ordinary persons find no difference between men.
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Description of man: dependence, longing for independence, need.
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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.
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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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Ugly deeds are most estimable when hidden.
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No religion except ours has taught that man is born in sin; none of the philosophical sects has admitted it; none therefore has spoken the truth.
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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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It is the heart which perceives God and not the reason.
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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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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 a man is not made for God, why is he happy only in God?
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All the maxims have been written. It only remains to put them into practice.
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The last proceeding of reason is to recognize that there is an infinity of things which are beyond it. There is nothing so conformable to reason as this disavowal of reason.
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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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Two things control men's nature, instinct and experience.
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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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Too much and too little wine. Give him none, he cannot find truth; give him too much, the same.
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We must know where to doubt, where to feel certain, where to submit. He who does not do so, understands not the force of reason.
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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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Men blaspheme what they do not know.
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He who cannot believe is cursed, for he reveals by his unbelief that God has not chosen to give him grace.
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Eloquence; it requires the pleasant and the real; but the pleasant must itself be drawn from the true.