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Blaise Pascal -
Reason
Quotes
38 Sourced Quotes
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We know the truth not only through our
reason
but also through our heart. It is through the latter that we know first principles, and
reason
, which has nothing to do with it, tries in vain to refute them.
Blaise Pascal
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The heart has its
reasons
which
reason
knows nothing of.
Blaise Pascal
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The two principles of truth,
reason
and senses, are not only both not genuine, but are engaged in mutual deception. The senses deceive
reason
through false appearances, and the senses are disturbed by passions, which produce false impressions.
Blaise Pascal
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Custom creates the whole of equity, for the simple
reason
that it is accepted.
Blaise Pascal
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All mathematicians would... be intuitive if they had clear sight, for they do not
reason
incorrectly from principles known to them; and intuitive minds would be mathematical if they could turn their eyes to the principles of mathematics to which they are unused.
Blaise Pascal
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The authority of
reason
is far more imperious than that of a master; for he who disobeys the one is unhappy, but he who disobeys the other is a fool.
Blaise Pascal
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As we speak of poetical beauty, so ought we to speak of mathematical beauty and medical beauty. But we do not do so; and that
reason
is that we know well what is the object of mathematics, and that it consists in proofs, and what is the object of medicine, and that it consists in healing. But we do not know in what grace consists, which is the object of poetry.
Blaise Pascal
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One of the principal
reasons
that diverts those who are entering upon this knowledge so much from the true path which they should follow, is the fancy that they take at the outset that good things are inaccessible, giving them the name great, lofty, elevated, sublime. This destroys everything. I would call them low, common, familiar: these names suit it better; I hate such inflated expressions.
Blaise Pascal
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It is your own assent to yourself, and the constant voice of your own
reason
, and not of others, that should make you believe.
Blaise Pascal
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Our
reason
is always disappointed by the inconsistency of appearances.
Blaise Pascal
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Put the world's greatest philosopher on a plank that is wider than need be; if there is a precipice below, although his
reason
may convince him that he is safe, his imagination will prevail.
Blaise Pascal
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Of the truths within our reach... the mind and the heart are as doors by which they are received into the soul, but... few enter by the mind, whilst they are brought in crowds by the rash caprices of the will, without the council of
reason
.
Blaise Pascal
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We are generally the better persuaded by the
reasons
we discover ourselves than by those given to us by others.
Blaise Pascal
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The mind of the greatest man on earth is not so independent of circumstances as not to feel inconvenienced by the merest buzzing noise about him; it does not need the report of a cannon to disturb his thoughts. The creaking of a vane or a pully is quite enough. Do not wonder that he
reasons
ill just now; a fly is buzzing by his ear; it is quite enough to unfit him for giving good counsel.
Blaise Pascal
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The last proceeding of
reason
is to recognize that there is an infinity of things which are beyond it.
Blaise Pascal
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If we submit everything to
reason
our religion will be left with nothing mysterious or supernatural. If we offend the principles of
reason
our religion will be absurd and ridiculous.... There are two equally dangerous extremes: to exclude
reason
, to admit nothing but
reason
.
Blaise Pascal
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Law was once introduced without
reason
, and has become reasonable.
Blaise Pascal
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Reason
commands us far more imperiously than a master; for in disobeying the one we are unfortunate, and in disobeying the other we are fools.
Blaise Pascal
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Our soul is cast into a body, where it finds number, time, dimension. Thereupon it
reasons
, and calls this nature necessity, and can believe nothing else.
Blaise Pascal
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Symmetry is what we see at a glance; based on the fact that there is no
reason
for any difference...
Blaise Pascal
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People are generally better persuaded by the
reasons
which they have themselves discovered than by those which have come in to the mind of others.
Blaise Pascal
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We are generally more effectually persuaded by
reasons
we have ourselves discovered than by those which have occurred to others.
Blaise Pascal
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The art of persuasion consists as much in that of pleasing as in that of convincing, so much more are men governed by caprice than by
reason
!
Blaise Pascal
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"God is, or He is not." But to which side shall we incline?
Reason
can decide nothing here. There is an infinite chaos which separated us. A game is being played at the extremity of this infinite distance where heads or tails will turn up. What will you wager?... If you win, you win everything; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager, then, without hesitation that He is.
Blaise Pascal
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Mankind suffers from two excesses: to exclude
reason
, and to live by nothing but
reason
.
Blaise Pascal
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Thus so wretched is man that he would weary even without any cause for weariness... and so frivolous is he that, though full of a thousand
reasons
for weariness, the least thing, such as playing billiards or hitting a ball, is sufficient enough to amuse him.
Blaise Pascal
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There no doubt exist natural laws, but once this fine
reason
of ours was corrupted, it corrupted everything.
Blaise Pascal
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In reading this author [Montaigne] and comparing him with Epictetus, I have found that they are assuredly the two greatest defenders of the two most celebrated sects of the world, and the only ones conformable to
reason
, since we can only follow one of these two roads, namely: either that there is a God, and then we place in him the sovereign good; or that he is uncertain, and that then the true good is also uncertain, since he is incapable of it.
Blaise Pascal
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Imagination cannot make fools wise, but it makes them happy, as against
reason
, which only makes its friends wretched: one covers them with glory, the other with shame.
Blaise Pascal
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When I consider the short duration of my life, swallowed up in the eternity before and after, the small space which I fill, or even can see, engulfed in the infinite immensity of spaces whereof I know nothing, and which know nothing of me, I am terrified, and wonder that I am here rather than there, for there is no
reason
why here rather than there, or now rather than then. Who has set me here? By whose order and design have this place and time been destined for me?—Memoria hospitis unius diei prætereuntis.
It is not well to be too much at liberty. It is not well to have all we want.
How many kingdoms know nothing of us!
The eternal silence of these infinite spaces alarms me.
Blaise Pascal
1
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Quote of the day
Nothing is impossible in this world. Firm determination, it is said, can move heaven and earth. Things appear far beyond one's power, because one cannot set his heart on any arduous project due to want of strong will.
Yamamoto Tsunetomo
Blaise Pascal
Creative Commons
Born:
June 19, 1623
Died:
August 19, 1662
(aged 39)
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