Quotes from Blaise Pascal

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

186] You abuse the trust people have in the Church and make them believe anything.

The present is never our end. The past and the present are our means, the future alone our end. Thus, we never actually live, but hope to live.

The difference between the mathematical and the intuitive mind. [1]—In the one the principles are palpable, but removed from ordinary use; so that for want of habit it is difficult to turn one's mind in that direction: but if one turns it thither ever so little, one sees the principles fully, and one must have a quite inaccurate mind who reasons wrongly from principles so plain that it is almost impossible they should escape notice.

we would willingly be cowards in order to acquire the reputation of being brave.

Just as we talk of poetic beauty, so we should also talk of mathematical beauty and medicinal beauty. But we do not talk like that for the very good reason that we know what the object of mathematics is, namely proof; and what the object of medicine is, namely cure; but we do not know what constitutes the attraction which is the object of poetry.

The sole case of man's unhappiness is that he does not know how to stay quietly in his room

This dog is mine, said those poor children; that is my place in the sun. Here is the beginning and the image of the usurpation of all the earth.

Eloquence. There must be elements both pleasing and real, but what is pleasing must itself be drawn from what is true.

Multiplicity which is not reduced to unity is confusion. Unity which does not depend on multiplicity is tyranny.

Man's condition. Inconstancy, boredom, anxiety. (Page 1)

Ne quid nimis

Civil war in man between reason and passions. If there were only reason without passions. If there were only passions without reason. But since he has both he cannot be free from war, for he can only be at peace with the one if he is at war with the other.

Truth is so obscured nowadays and lies so well established that unless we love the truth we shall never recognize it.

Words differently arranged have a different meaning, and meanings differently arranged have different effects.

Weaklings are those who know the truth, but maintain it only as far as it is in their interest to do so, and apart from that forsake it.

We almost never think of the present, and if we do think of it, it is only to see what light it throws on our plans for the future. The present is never our end. The past and present are our means, the future alone our end. Thus we never actually live, but hope to live, and since we are always planning how to be happy, it is inevitable that we should never be so. (Page 10)

The parts of the universe . . . all are connected with each other in such a way that I think it to be impossible to understand any one without the whole.

No one has ever incurred martyrdom for miracles he claims to have seen; for, in the case of those which the Turks believe by tradition, human folly might go as far as martyrdom, but not for those actually seen.

For it is far better to know something about everything than to know all about one thing. This universality is the best. If we can have both, still better; but if we must choose, we ought to choose the former. And the world feels this and does so; for the world is often a good judge.

Thinking too little about things or thinking too much both make us obstinate and fanatical. If

The church has had as much difficulty in proving that Jesus was man, against those who denied it, as in proving that he was God, and both were equally evident.

167] Submission and use of reason; that is what makes true Christianity.

This is not the home of truth; it wanders unrecognized among men.