Blaise Pascal

Nothing is as approved as mediocrity, the majority has established it and it fixes it fangs on whatever gets beyond it either way.

We are only falsehood, duplicity, contradiction; we both conceal and disguise ourselves from ourselves.

One must know oneself. If this does not serve to discover truth, it at least serves as a rule of life and there is nothing better.

Men blaspheme what they do not know.

Chance gives rise to thoughts, and chance removes them; no art can keep or acquire them.

I have made this letter longer than usual, only because I have not had the time to make it shorter.

The present letter is a very long one, simply because I had no leisure to make it shorter.

The last act is bloody, however pleasant all the rest of the play is: a little earth is thrown at last upon our head, and that is the end forever.

All men's miseries derive from not being able to sit in a quiet room alone.

Faith certainly tells us what the senses do not, but not the contrary of what they see; it is above, not against them.

The heart has its reasons of which reason knows nothing.

Time heals griefs and quarrels, for we change and are no longer the same persons. Neither the offender nor the offended are any more themselves.

Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it with religious conviction.

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.

Faith indeed tells what the senses do not tell, but not the contrary of what they see. It is above them and not contrary to them.

The consciousness of the falsity of present pleasures, and the ignorance of the vanity of absent pleasures, cause inconstancy.

Perfect clarity would profit the intellect but damage the will.

People are usually more convinced by reasons they discovered themselves than by those found by others.

When we are in love we seem to ourselves quite different from what we were before.

Kind words produce their images on men's souls.

There are two kinds of people one can call reasonable: those who serve God with all their heart because they know him, and those who seek him with all their heart because they do not know him.

The property of power is to protect.

Our notion of symmetry is derived from the human face. Hence, we demand symmetry horizontally and in breath only, not vertically nor in depth.

Nature is an infinite sphere whose center is everywhere and circumference nowhere.

The virtue of a man ought to be measured not by his extraordinary exertions but by his every day conduct.

Our nature consists in motion; complete rest is death.

Vanity of science. Knowledge of physical science will not console me for ignorance of morality in time of affliction, but knowledge of morality will always console me for ignorance of physical science.

You always admire what you really don't understand.

It is incomprehensible that God should exist, and it is incomprehensible that he should not exist.

Small minds are concerned with the extraordinary, great minds with the ordinary.

The gospel to me is simply irresistible.

If our condition were truly happy, we would not seek diversion from it in order to make ourselves happy.

The arithmetical machine produces effects that approach nearer to thought than all the actions of animals. But it does nothing that would enable us to attribute will to it, as to the animals.

Since we cannot know all that there is to be known about anything, we ought to know a little about everything.

I have discovered that all human evil comes from this mans being unable to sit still and quiet in a room alone.

The pagans do not know God, and love only the earth. The Jews know the true God, and love only the earth. The Christians know the true God, and do not love the earth.

A trifle consoles us, for a trifle distresses us.

It is impossible on reasonable grounds to disbelieve miracles.

Too much and too little wine. Give him none, he cannot find truth; give him too much, the same.

People almost invariably arrive at their beliefs not on the basis of proof but on the basis of what they find attractive.

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.

It is good to be tired and wearied by the futile search after the true good, that we may stretch out our arms to the Redeemer.

Truth is so obscure in these times, and falsehood so established, that, unless we love the truth, we cannot know it.

When we see a natural style, we are astonished and charmed; for we expected to see an author, and we find a person.

Justice is what is established; and thus all our established laws will necessarily be regarded as just without examination, since they are established.

If we examine our thoughts, we shall find them always occupied with the past and the future.

I have discovered that all human evil comes from this, man's being unable to sit still in a room.

Can anything be stupider than that a man has the right to kill me because he lives on the other side of a river and his ruler has a quarrel with mine, though I have not quarrelled with him?

The supreme function of reason is to show man that some things are beyond reason.

The immortality of the soul is a matter which is of so great consequence to us and which touches us so profoundly that we must have lost all feeling to be indifferent about it.

All mankind's unhappiness derives from one thing: his inability to know how to remain in repose in one room.

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.

To have no time for philosophy is to be a true philosopher.

Through space the universe encompasses and swallows me up like an atom; through thought I comprehend the world.

Faith embraces many truths which seem to contradict each other.

Contradiction is a bad sign of truth several things which are certain are contradicted several things which are false pass without contradiction. Contradiction is not a sign of falsity nor the want of contradiction a sign of truth

Justice without force is powerless; force without justice is tyrannical.

Kind words do not cost much. Yet they accomplish much.

Imagination disposes of everything; it creates beauty, justice, and happiness, which are everything in this world.

The greater intellect one has, the more originality one finds in men. Ordinary persons find no difference between men.

No one is discontented at not being a king except a discrowned king unhappiness almost invariably indicates the existence of a road not taken, a talent undeveloped, a self not recognized.

There are only two kinds of men: the righteous who think they are sinners and the sinners who think they are righteous.

The knowledge of God is very far from the love of Him.

Desire and force between them are responsible for all our actions; desire causes our voluntary acts, force our involuntary.

The finite is annihilated in the presence of the infinite, and becomes a pure nothing. So our spirit before God, so our justice before divine justice.

The whole title by which you possess your property, is not a title of nature but of a human institution.

We sail within a vast sphere, ever drifting in uncertainty, driven from end to end.

All mans miseries derive from not being able to sit quietly in a room alone.

Not to be mad is another form of madness

All mens miseries derive from not being able to sit in a quiet room alone.

Vanity is so secure in the heart of man that everyone wants to be admired - even I who write this, and you who read this.

The least movement is of importance to all nature. The entire ocean is affected by a pebble.

Between us and heaven or hell there is only life, which is the frailest thing in the world.

Imagination disposes of everything; it creates beauty, justice, and happiness, which is everything in this world.

There is a certain standard of grace and beauty which consists in a certain relation between our nature and the thing which pleases us.

Man's greatness lies in his power of thought.

One must know oneself. If this does not serve to discover truth it at least serves as a rule of life and there is nothing better.

Our own interests are still an exquisite means for dazzling our eyes agreeably.

The charm of fame is so great that we like every object to which it is attached, even death.

A little thing comforts us because a little thing afflicts us.

People are generally better persuaded by the reasons which they have themselves discovered than by those which have come into the mind of others.

Contradiction is not a sign of falsity nor the lack of contradiction a sign of truth.

Our intellect holds the same position in the world of thought as our body occupies in the expanse of nature.

Our soul is cast into a body, where it finds number, time, dimension. Thereupon it reasons, and calls this nature necessity, and can believe nothing else.

Earnestness is enthusiasm tempered by reason.

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.

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.

Nature is an infinite sphere of which the center is everywhere and the circumference nowhere.

Happiness is neither without us nor within us. It is in God, both without us and within us.

Human beings must be known to be loved; but Divine beings must be loved to be known.

There are vices which have no hold upon us, but in connection with others; and which, when you cut down the trunk, fall like the branches.

Man's true nature being lost, everything becomes his nature; as, his true good being lost, everything becomes his good.

Our achievements of today are but the sum total of our thoughts of yesterday. You are today where the thoughts of yesterday have brought you and you will be tomorrow where the thoughts of today take you.

Rivers are roads that move and carry us whither we wish to go.

Vanity is but the surface.

He that takes truth for his guide and duty for his end may safely trust to Gods providence to lead him aright.

Noble deeds that are concealed are most esteemed.

Not only do we know God through Jesus Christ, we only know ourselves through Jesus Christ.

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.

People are generally better persuaded by the reasons which they have themselves discovered than by those which have come in to the mind of others.