Blaise Pascal - Pensées

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Caesar was too old, it seems to me, to go off and amuse himself conquering the world. Such a pastime was all right for Augustus and Alexander; they were young men, not easily held in check, but Caesar ought to have been more mature.

Blaise Pascal
Men despise religion. They hate it and are afraid it may be true.

Blaise Pascal
Equality of possessions is no doubt right, but, as men could not make might obey right, they have made right obey might.

Blaise Pascal
One must know oneself. If this does not serve to discover truth, it at least serves as a rule of life, and there is nothing better.

Blaise Pascal
Knowing God without knowing our own wretchedness makes for pride. Knowing our own wretchedness without knowing God makes for despair. Knowing Jesus Christ strikes the balance because he shows us both God and our own wretchedness.

Blaise Pascal
Can anything be more ridiculous than that a man should have the right to kill me because he lives on the other side of the water, and because his ruler has a quarrel with mine, though I have none with him?

Blaise Pascal
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
It is much better to know something about everything than to know everything about one thing.

Blaise Pascal
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
The last proceeding of reason is to recognize that there is an infinity of things which are beyond it.

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

Blaise Pascal
Men seek rest in a struggle against difficulties; and when they have conquered these, rest becomes insufferable.

Blaise Pascal
Few friendships would remain, if each knew what his friend said of him when he wasn't there.

Blaise Pascal
All our dignity consists of thought. It is from there that we must be lifted up and not from space and time, which we could never fill. So let us work on thinking well. That is the principle of morality.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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