Blaise Pascal Quotes
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Reason is the slow and torturous method by which those who do not know the truth discover it.
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The mind has its arrangement; it proceeds from principles to demonstrations. The heart has a different mode of proceeding.
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These five rules above form all that is necessary to render proofs convincing, immutable, and to say all, geometrical; and the eight rules together render them even more perfect.
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The consciousness of the falsity of present pleasures, and the ignorance of the vanity of absent pleasures, cause inconstancy.
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The Church limits her sacramental services to the faithful. Christ gave Himself upon the cross a ransom for all.
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The Christian religion teaches me two points-that there is a God whom men can know, and that their nature is so corrupt that they are unworthy of Him.
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It is necessary to show that there is nothing so little known as the above rules, nothing more difficult to practice, or nothing more useful and universal.
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How I hate this folly of not believing in the Eucharist, etc.! If the gospel be true, if Jesus Christ be God, what difficulty is there?
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Nothing is more common than good things: the point in question is only to discriminate them; and it is certain that they are all natural and within our reach and even known to all mankind.
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The last function of reason is to recognize that there are an infinity of things which surpass it.
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There is a God-shaped hole in the life of every man.
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When a man who accepts the Christian doctrine lives unworthily of it, it is much clearer to say he is a bad Christian than to say he is not a Christian.
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Il n'est pas certain que tout soit incertain. (Translation: It is not certain that everything is uncertain.)
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Discourses on humility are a source of pride in the vain and of humility in the humble. So those on scepticism cause believers to affirm. Few men speak humbly of humility, chastely of chastity, few doubtingly of scepticism.
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Unless we love the truth we cannot know it.
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Pride counterbalances all our miseries, for it either hides them, or, if it discloses them, boasts of that disclosure. Pride has such a thorough possession of us, even in the midst of our miseries and faults, that we are prepared to sacrifice life with joy, if it may but be talked of.
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Thus so wretched is man that he would weary even without any cause for weariness... and so frivolous is he that, though full of a thousand reasons for weariness, the least thing, such as playing billiards or hitting a ball, is sufficient enough to amuse him.
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The gospel to me is simply irresistible.
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Which is the more believable of the two, Moses or China?
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Man's sensitivity to the little things and insensitivity to the greatest are the signs of a strange disorder.
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The incredulous are the more credulous. They believe the miracles of Vespasian that they may not believe those of Moses. [Fr., Incredules les plus credules. Ils croient les miracle de Vespasien, pour ne pas croire ceux de Moise.]
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The eternal silence of these infinite spaces frightens me.
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Fear not, provided you fear; but if you fear not, then fear.
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Good deeds, when concealed, are the most admirable.