Quotes from Blaise Pascal

We run carelessly over the precipice after having put something in front of us to prevent us seeing it.

He that takes truth for his guide, and duty for his end, may safely trust to God's providence to lead him aright

We make an idol of truth itself, for truth apart from charity is not God, but his image and an idol that we must not love or worship.

Jesus is a God whom we can approach without pride and before whom we can humble ourselves without despair.

Being unable to cure death, wretchedness and ignorance, men have decided, in order to be happy, not to think about such things.

If he exalts himself, I humble him. If he humbles himself, I exalt him. And I go on contradicting him Until he understands That he is a monster that passes all understanding.

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.

Kind words do not cost much. They never blister the tongue or lips. They make other people good-natured. They also produce their own image on men's souls, and a beautiful image it is.

We never keep to the present. We recall the past; we anticipate the future as if we found it too slow in coming and were trying to hurry it up, or we recall the past as if to stay its too rapid flight. We are so unwise that we wander about in times that do not belong to us, and do not think of the only one that does; so vain that we dream of times that are not and blindly flee the only one that is. The fact is the present usually hurts.

The heart has its reasons which reason knows not of.

It is dangerous to explain too clearly to man how like he is to the animals without pointing out his greatness. It is also dangerous to make too much of his greatness without his vileness. It is still more dangerous to leave him in ignorance of both, but it is most valuable to represent both to him. Man must not be allowed to believe that he is equal either to animals or to angels, nor to be unaware of either, but he must know both.

God wishes to move the will rather than the mind. Perfect clarity would help the mind and harm the will.

Each man is everything to himself, for with his death everything is dead for him. That is why each of us thinks he is everything to everyone. We must not judge nature by ourselves, but by its own standards.

Eloquence is a painting of the thoughts.

Cleopatra's nose, had it been shorter, the whole face of the world would have been changed.

Man is neither angel nor beast, and unhappily whoever wants to act the angel, acts the beast.

We run heedlessly into the abyss after putting something in front of us to stop us seeing it.

Those who have known God without knowing their own wretchedness have not glorified him but themselves.

We know the truth, not only be the reason, but also be the heart.

Men are so inevitably mad that not to be mad would be to give a mad twist to madness.

All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.

If you gain, you gain all. If you lose, you lose nothing. Wager then, without hesitation, that He exsists.

At the far end of this infinite distance a coin is being spun which will come down heads or tails. How will you wager? Reason cannot make you choose either, reason cannot prove either wrong.

Vanity is so firmly anchored in man's heart that a soldier, a camp follower, a cook or a porter will boast and expect admirers, and even philosophers want them; those who write against them want to enjoy the prestige of having written well, those who read them want the prestige of having read them, and perhaps I who write this want the same thing.