Quotes from Blaise Pascal

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 go beyond the bounds of moderation is to outrage humanity.

I made this [letter] very long, because I did not have the leisure to make it shorter.

The greatest single distinguishing feature of the omnipotence of God is that our imagination gets lost thinking about it.

Losses are comparative; imagination only makes them of any moment.

The imagination enlarges little objects so as to fill our souls with a fantastic estimate; and, with rash insolence, it belittles the great to its own measure, as when talking of God.

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

If I had more time I would write a shorter letter.

Little things console us because little things afflict us.

The imagination disposes of everything. It creates beauty, justice, and happiness, which are the whole of the world.

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

The last thing we decide in writing a book is what to put first.

Not to be mad is another form of madness

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

It is not only old and early impressions that deceive us; the charms of novelty have the same power.

All the troubles of life come upon us because we refuse to sit quietly for a while each day in our rooms.

Why God has instituted Prayer:— To communicate to his creatures the dignity of causation.

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

I would prefer an intelligent hell to a stupid paradise.

Kind words produce their images on men's souls.

Muhammad established a religion by putting his enemies to death; Jesus Christ by commanding his followers to lay down their lives.

It is the conduct of God, who disposes all things kindly, to put religion into the mind by reason, and into the heart by grace.

Men despise religion. They hate it and are afraid it may be true.

To be mistaken in believing that the Christian religion is true is no great loss to anyone; but how dreadful to be mistaken in believing it to be false!