Blaise Pascal - Pensées

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The heart has its reasons which reason knows nothing of.

Blaise Pascal
Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.

Blaise Pascal
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
We never do evil so fully and cheerfully as when we do it out of conscience.

Blaise Pascal
If our condition were truly happy we should not need to divert ourselves from thinking about it.

Blaise Pascal
All the misfortunes of men derive from one single thing, which is their inability to be at ease in a room.

Blaise Pascal
I have discovered that all human evil comes from this, man's being unable to sit still in a room.

Blaise Pascal
How vain painting is, exciting admiration by its resemblance to things of which we do not admire the originals.

Blaise Pascal
What amazes me the most is to see that everyone is not amazed at his own weakness.

Blaise Pascal
The last thing one knows in constructing a work is what to put first.

Blaise Pascal
Habit is a second nature that destroys the first. But what is nature? Why is habit not natural? I am very much afraid that nature itself is only a first habit, just as habit is a second nature.

Blaise Pascal
For after all, what is man in nature? A nothing in respect of that which is infinite, an all in respect of nothing, a middle betwixt nothing and all.

Blaise Pascal
It is not shameful for man to succumb under pain, and it is shameful for him to succumb under pleasure.

Blaise Pascal
To ridicule philosophy is really to philosophize.

Blaise Pascal
It is a funny sort of justice whose limits are marked by a river; true on this side of the Pyrenees, false on the other.

Blaise Pascal
The grandeur of man is great in that he knows himself to be miserable.

Blaise Pascal
To make light of philosophy is to be a true philosopher.

Blaise Pascal
Justice without strength is helpless, strength without justice is tyrannical.... Unable to make what is just strong, we have made what is strong just.

Blaise Pascal
We are generally the better persuaded by the reasons we discover ourselves than by those given to us by others.

Blaise Pascal
Knowledge of physical science will not console me for ignorance of morality in time of affliction, but knowledge of morality will always console me for ignorance of physical science.

Blaise Pascal
Epictetus goes much further when he asks: Why do we not lose our temper if someone tells us that we have a headache, while we do lose it if someone says there is anything wrong with our arguments or our choice?

Blaise Pascal
Had Cleopatra's nose been shorter, the whole face of the world would have changed.

Blaise Pascal
The most powerful cause of error is the war existing between the senses and reason.

Blaise Pascal
One must have deeper motives and judge everything accordingly, but go on talking like an ordinary person.

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

Blaise Pascal
'God is or he is not.' But to which side shall we incline?…Let us weigh the gain and the loss in wagering that God is. Let us estimate the two chances. If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager then without hesitation that he is.
Known as Pascal's wager

Blaise Pascal
Those who are clever in imagination are far more pleased with themselves than prudent men could reasonably be.

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

Blaise Pascal
Our reason is always disappointed by the inconsistency of appearances.

Blaise Pascal