Blaise Pascal Quotes

It is not good to be too free. It is not good to have everything one wants.

All of our reasoning ends in surrender to feeling.

Nothing is as approved as mediocrity, the majority has established it and it fixes its fangs on whatever gets beyond it either way.

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

Vanity of science. 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.

He that takes truth for his guide, and duty for his end, may safely trust to God’s providence to lead him aright.

It is natural for the mind to believe and for the will to love; so that, for want of true objects, they must attach themselves to false.

When we see a natural style, we are astonished and charmed; for we expected to see an author, and we find a person.

The supreme function of reason is to show man that some things are beyond reason.

Time heals griefs and quarrels, for we change and are no longer the same persons. Neither the offender nor the offended are any more themselves.

The present letter is a very long one, simply because I had no leisure to make it shorter.

Between us and heaven or hell there is only life, which is the frailest thing in the world.

Happiness is neither without us nor within us. It is in God, both without us and within us.

You always admire what you really don’t understand.

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

Faith indeed tells what the senses do not tell, but not the contrary of what they see. It is above them and not contrary to them.

The last proceeding of reason is to recognize that there is an infinity of things which are beyond it. There is nothing so conformable to reason as this disavowal of reason.

Evil is easy, and has infinite forms.

Contradiction is not a sign of falsity, nor the lack of contradiction a sign of truth.

We view things not only from different sides, but with different eyes; we have no wish to find them alike.

Continuous eloquence wearies. Grandeur must be abandoned to be appreciated. Continuity in everything is unpleasant. Cold is agreeable, that we may get warm.

Faith is different from proof; the latter is human, the former is a Gift from God.

Two things control men’s nature, instinct and experience.

The self is hateful.

To have no time for philosophy is to be a true philosopher.

Faith embraces many truths which seem to contradict each other.

Men often take their imagination for their heart; and they believe they are converted as soon as they think of being converted.

The charm of fame is so great that we like every object to which it is attached, even death.

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 maintain that, if everyone knew what others said about him, there would not be four friends in the world.

Through space the universe encompasses and swallows me up like an atom; through thought I comprehend the world.

We never love a person, but only qualities.

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

The struggle alone pleases us, not the victory.

Man’s true nature being lost, everything becomes his nature; as, his true good being lost, everything becomes his good.

If we must not act save on a certainty, we ought not to act on religion, for it is not certain. But how many things we do on an uncertainty, sea voyages, battles!

Even those who write against fame wish for the fame of having written well, and those who read their works desire the fame of having read them.

The greatness of man is great in that he knows himself to be wretched. A tree does not know itself to be wretched.

In each action we must look beyond the action at our past, present, and future state, and at others whom it affects, and see the relations of all those things. And then we shall be very cautious.

Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature, but he is a thinking reed.

Atheism shows strength of mind, but only to a certain degree.

Faith certainly tells us what the senses do not, but not the contrary of what they see; it is above, not against them.

The immortality of the soul is a matter which is of so great consequence to us and which touches us so profoundly that we must have lost all feeling to be indifferent about it.

Chance gives rise to thoughts, and chance removes them; no art can keep or acquire them.

It is incomprehensible that God should exist, and it is incomprehensible that he should not exist.

The sensitivity of men to small matters, and their indifference to great ones, indicates a strange inversion.

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.

Few friendships would survive if each one knew what his friend says of him behind his back.

We only consult the ear because the heart is wanting.

Imagination decides everything.

Men are so necessarily mad, that not to be mad would amount to another form of madness.

Justice is what is established; and thus all our established laws will necessarily be regarded as just without examination, since they are established.

There are some who speak well and write badly. For the place and the audience warm them, and draw from their minds more than they think of without that warmth.

Justice and truth are too such subtle points that our tools are too blunt to touch them accurately.

If you gain, you gain all. If you lose, you lose nothing. Wager then, without hesitation, that He exists.

We conceal it from ourselves in vain – we must always love something. In those matters seemingly removed from love, the feeling is secretly to be found, and man cannot possibly live for a moment without it.

Earnestness is enthusiasm tempered by reason.

Vanity is but the surface.

Men blaspheme what they do not know.

Desire and force between them are responsible for all our actions; desire causes our voluntary acts, force our involuntary.