Blaise Pascal Quotes

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.

Those who write against vanity want the glory of having written well, and their readers the glory of reading well, and I who write this have the same desire, as perhaps those who read this have also.

Quelque e tendue d'esprit que l'on ait, l'on n'est capable que d'une grande passion. However vast a man's spirit, he is only capable of one great passion.

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.

Console-toi, tu ne me chercherais pas si tu ne m'avais trouve . Comfort yourself.You would not seek me if you had not found me.

All men have happiness as their object: there is no exception. However different the means they employ, they all aim at the same end.

Death is easier to bear without thinking of it, than the thought of death without peril.

Is it courage in a dying man to go, in weakness and in agony, to affront an almighty and eternal God?

The multitude which does not reduce itself to unity is confusion.

That we must love one God only is a thing so evident that it does not require miracles to prove it.

Concupiscence and force are the source of all our actions; concupiscence causes voluntary actions, force involuntary ones.

We like security: we like the pope to be infallible in matters of faith, and grave doctors to be so in moral questions so that we can feel reassured.

I can approve of those only who seek in tears for happiness.

Those who make antitheses by forcing the sense are like men who make false windows for the sake of symmetry. Their rule is not to speak justly, but to make accurate figures.

We only consult the ear because the heart is wanting.

Force and not opinion is the queen of the world; but it is opinion that uses the force. [Fr., La force est la reine du monde, et non pas l'opinion; mais l'opinion est celle qui use de la force.]

Religion is so great a thing that it is right that those who will not take the trouble to seek it if it be obscure, should be deprived of it.

All the good maxims which are in the world fail when applied to one's self.

The more intelligence one has, the more people one finds original. Commonplace people see no difference between men.

Faith affirms many things, respecting which the senses are silent, but nothing that they deny. It is superior, but never opposed to their testimony

It is superstitious to put one's hopes in formalities, but arrogant to refuse to submit to them.

If it is an extraordinary blindness to live without investigating what we are, it is a terrible one to live an evil life, while believing in God

What a difficult thing it is to ask someone's advice on a matter without coloring his judgment by the way in which we present our problem.

Wisdom leads us back to childhood.

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

Passion cannot be beautiful without excess; one either loves too much or not enough.

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

Anyone who found the secret of rejoicing when things go well without being annoyed when they go badly would have found the point.

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

Reason is the slow and torturous method by which those who do not know the truth discover it

Man is neither angel nor beast.

The law required what it could not give. Grace gives that which it requires.

In proportion as our own mind is enlarged we discover a greater number of men of originality. Commonplace people see no difference between one man and another.

We make an idol of truth itself; for truth apart from charity is not God, but His image and idol, which we must neither love nor worship.

The world is satisfied with words, few care to dive beneath the surface.

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.

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

Let no one say that I have said nothing new... the arrangement of the subject is new. When we play tennis, we both play with the same ball, but one of us places it better.

All man's troubles come from not knowing how to sit still in one room.

[On vanity:] The nose of Cleopatra: if it had been shorter, the face of the earth would have changed.

Le silence est la plus grande perse cution: jamais les saints ne se sont tus. Silence is the greatest of all persecutions: no saint was ever silent.

Discourses on humility are a source of pride in the vain and of humility in the humble.

Nature, which alone is good, is wholly familiar and common.

I can well conceive a man without hands, feet, head. But I cannot conceive man without thought; he would be a stone or a brute.

Nothing is more dastardly than to act with bravado toward God.

Love has no age as it is always renewing itself.

Continued eloquence is wearisome.

We must keep our thought secret, and judge everything by it, while talking like the people.

What part of us feels pleasure? Is it our hand, our arm, our flesh, or our blood? It must obviously be something immaterial.

Silence is the greatest persecution; never do the saints keep themselves silent.