Blaise Pascal - Pensées

133 Sourced Quotes

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

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

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

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

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

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

Blaise Pascal
All men naturally hate each other. We have used concupiscence as best we can to make it serve the common good, but this is mere sham and a false image of charity, for essentially it is just hate.

Blaise Pascal
The spaces of the universe enfold me and swallow me up like a speck; but I, by the power of thought, may comprehend the universe.

Blaise Pascal
The sole cause of man's unhappiness is that he does not know how to stay quietly in his room.

Blaise Pascal
We believe we are far more capable of reaching the center of things than of embracing their circumference.

Blaise Pascal
It is as impossible to know the parts without knowing the whole as to know the whole without knowing the particular parts.

Blaise Pascal
There is a lot of difference between tempting and leading into error. God tempts but does not lead into error. To tempt is to provide opportunities for us to do certain things if we do not love God, but putting us under no necessity to do so. To lead into error is to compel a man necessarily to conclude and follow a falsehood.

Blaise Pascal
I condemn equally those who choose to praise man, those who choose to condemn him and those who choose to divert themselves, and I can only approve of those who seek with groans.

Blaise Pascal
Dull minds are never either intuitive or mathematical.

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

Blaise Pascal
Let man reawake and consider what he is compared with the reality of things; regard himself lost in this remote corner of Nature; and from the tiny cell where he lodges, to wit the Universe, weigh at their true worth earth, kingdoms, towns, himself. What is a man face to face with infinity?

Blaise Pascal
Do they think that they have given us great pleasure by telling us that they hold our soul to be no more than wind or smoke, and saying it moreover in tones of pride and satisfaction? Is this then something to be said gaily? Is it not on the contrary something to be said sadly, as being the saddest thing in the world?

Blaise Pascal
Flies are so mighty that they win battles, paralyse our minds, eat up our bodies.

Blaise Pascal
That something so obvious as the vanity of the world should be so little recognized that people find it odd and surprising to be told that it is foolish to seek greatness; that is most remarkable.

Blaise Pascal
Probability — Each one can employ it; no one can take it away.

Blaise Pascal
The art of subversion, of revolution, is to dislodge established customs by probing down to their origins in order to show how they lack authority and justice.

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

Blaise Pascal