Blaise Pascal Quotes
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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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It is the heart which perceives God and not the reason.
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The more intelligent a man is, the more originality he discovers in others.
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All that tends not to charity is figurative. The sole aim of the Scripture is charity.
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Mediocrity makes the most of its native possessions.
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If a man is not made for God, why is he happy only in God?
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Description of man: dependence, longing for independence, need.
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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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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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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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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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Force rules the world-not opinion; but it is opinion that makes use of force.
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Things are always at their best in their beginning.
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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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The supreme function of reason is to show man that some things are beyond reason.
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Ugly deeds are most estimable when hidden.
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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.
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Chance gives rise to thoughts, and chance removes them; no art can keep or acquire them.
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Two things control men's nature, instinct and experience.
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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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Let no one say that I have said nothing new... the arrangement of the subject is new. When we play tennis, we both play with the same ball, but one of us places it better.
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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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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.