Blaise Pascal Quotes

No religion except ours has taught that man is born in sin none of the philosophical sects has admitted it none therefore has spoken the truth

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

Men spend their time in following a ball or a hare it is the pleasure even of kings.

Few friendships would survive if each one knew what his friend says of him behind his back

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

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

I would prefer an intelligent hell to a stupid paradise.

Nature has made all her truths independent of one another. Our art makes one dependent on the other.

Those honor nature well, who teach that she can speak on everything.

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

The infinite distance between the mind & the body is a symbol of the distance that is infinitely more, between the intellect & love, for love is divine.

The last thing we discover in composing a work is what to put down first.

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

God instituted prayer to communicate to creatures the dignity of causality.

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

Man is but a reed, the weakest in nature, but he is a thinking reed.

People often mistake their imagination for their heart, & so often are convinced they are converted as soon as they start thinking of becoming converted.

If man studied himself, he would see how incapable he is of going further.

Kind words do not cost much. Yet they accomplish much

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

The last thing one knows when writing a book is what to put first.

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

The art of opposition and of revolution is to unsettle established customs, sounding them even to their source, to point out their want of authority and justice.

I lay it down as a fact that if all men knew what others say of them, there would not be four friends in the world.

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

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

I have only made this letter longer because I have not had the time to make it sho

Our nature consists in motion complete rest is death.

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

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 relation of all those things. And then we shall be very cautious.

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

Losses are comparative imagination only makes them of any moment.

Losses are comparative only imagination makes them of any moment.

Faith declares what the senses do not see but not the contrary of what they see.

Faith is a sounder guide than reason. Reason can go only so far but faith has no limits.

It is the heart which experiences God and not the reason.

If we all told what we know of one another there would not be four friends in the world

It is the heart which experiences God not the reason.

The majority is the best way because it is visible and has strength to make itself obeyed. Yet it is the opinion of the least able.

Everyone without exception is searching for happiness.

All men have happiness as their object: there are no exceptions. However different the means they employ they aim at the same end.

If a soldier or labourer complains of the hardship of his lot set him to do nothing.

All our reasoning ends in surrender to feeling.

The heart has reasons which reason cannot understand.

Two things control man's nature: instinct and experience.

Lust and force are the source of all our actions lust causes voluntary actions force involuntary ones.

We do not content ourselves with the life we have in ourselves we desire to live an imaginary life in the minds of others and for this purpose we endeavor to shine.

The power of a man's virtue should not be measured by his special efforts but by his ordinary doing.

If you want people to think well of you do not speak well of yourself.

The heart has its reasons which reason knows nothing of.