Quotes by Blaise Pascal

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Mine, yours: "This dog is mine," say the children; "this is my place under the sun," say the grown-ups. I see in these words the beginning and the image of the usurpation of the whole earth.

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The man who loves himself hates nothing more than being alone with himself. He seeks nothing but himself, and flees from nothing as himself, because when he looks, he does not find himself as he would like, and because he finds in himself a heap of inevitable miseries and a void of real and lasting goods on who is unable to fill it.

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Divine truths cannot be the object of the art of persuasion, because they absolutely transcend nature.

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We always love not the man, but only his qualities. We will not laugh, therefore, at men who ask to be respected for their ranks and positions, for we love man only for the qualities acquired in exchange for them.

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It would be much more philosophical to live simply and peacefully.

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We are comforted by any trifle because any trifle can throw us into desolation.

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I cannot excuse Descartes: he would, in his philosophy, want to end it without God, but that did not prevent him from using God to give the world the first impulse, which set it in motion, after who no longer needed Him.

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Ignorance sometimes has an advantage over the cultured man in that he does not live with the ideas of the dead.

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Inconsistency, boredom, restlessness - these are the conditions of human existence.

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It is not good to be too free. It's not good to not need anything.

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Place a philosopher on a broad board over a precipice, and however much reason assures him that no danger befalls him, imagination will still triumph.

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We head carelessly towards the abyss, covering our eyes with what we're getting at, just so we don't see where we're running.

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People are taught likes and dislikes, only honor is not, while people try to make themselves known precisely through honor, that is, precisely through something they have never learned.

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He who does not see the agitation of the world, is himself an agitator.

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We will strive, therefore, to think well - here is the beginning of a moral behavior. There is no greater misfortune than when a man begins to fear the truth, not to be unmasked by it.

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Everything is created and determined by a single Creator: roots, branches fruits, causes and effects.

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All the stars, the firmament, the stars, the earth, and its kingdoms do nothing to the humblest of minds, for it knows all, including itself, while the stars know nothing. But all the stars, taken together, do not even make a single start of mercy - this phenomenon belongs to an incomparably higher order.

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We try to imitate great men more by their weaknesses than by their qualities.

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Geometry is a wonderful way of testing our intellectual powers, and by no means the object of their application.

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Even the most brilliant speech produces satiety if it goes on too long.

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The conclusions a man arrives at through personal reflection often convince him more strongly than those which have occurred to another.

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The search for truth is not done with joy, but with anxiety and disturbance; but, anyway, you must seek it, because if you don't find it and love it, you will perish.

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True eloquence does not need the science of oratory, just as true morality does not need the science of morals.

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Why is my knowledge limited? Why am I short? Why does life on earth last a hundred, and not a thousand years? Why did nature stop at this figure and not at another, although they are infinite in number and there is no reason why this particular one should be chosen?

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Why do people prefer the majority? Because he's right? No, because she's strong.

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Ignorant as I am of morals, the science of external things does not comfort me in moments of sorrow, while the science of morals comforts me in my ignorance of external things.

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Love has no age, it is always new.

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Do you want people to believe in your virtues? Don't brag about them!

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Man is neither angel nor beast, and the more he pretends to be an angel, the more he resembles a beast.

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Man is not naturally capable of walking in one direction: when he goes forward, when he turns back.

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Man is sometimes divided between reason and passions.

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Man's sensitivity to trifles and insensitivity to the most important things, is it not a sign of monstrous perversity?

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The more enlightened people are, the more obvious human greatness and insignificance are to them.

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The smarter man is, the more he finds in those with whom he comes into contact something similar to himself. To the mediocre man, all men are the same.

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What are our innate concepts, if not concepts we have become accustomed to? Do not children assimilate them from their parents, as animals do with the art of hunting?

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Most cherished are those noble deeds which remain unknown.

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He who has chosen truth as his guide, and duty as his goal, can trust with courage in Providence.

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Only when we have finished a work, it is clear to us what we should have started it with.

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Nature repeats itself: the seed planted in rich soil bears fruit; the thought planted in a receptive mind bears fruit; the numbers repeat the space, although they are very different from it.

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Let it not be said that I did not say anything new: the novelty lies in the arrangement of the material. When playing leapsa, one and the same ball is used, but one hits better than the other

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To say that man has no gain from lying - that does not mean. that he is telling the truth: he is simply lying for the sake of lying.

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Rivers are roads that move by themselves and take us where we want to go.

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With what ease and self-satisfaction does a man do evil, when he is convinced that he is doing good!

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How many powers of the world do not even suspect that I exist!

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Conscience is the best moral book we have; it is good to look through it as often as possible.

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Justice and truth are two edges so fine that our instruments are too crude to measure them accurately. Touching them, they flatter themselves and lean on the banalities around them, that is, on lies rather than truth.

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A man's virtue is judged not by his enthusiastic starts, but by his everyday deeds.

"One of the evil properties of man is that he loves only himself and wants goodness only for himself. But woe to him who loves only himself!"

"God created heaven and earth, but they lacked the ability to understand the happiness of their existence. Then God made creatures who could understand the happiness of their existence, and who could create a single body from all of its thinking parts. All people are members of this one body; in order to be happy, they should live in harmony with the will that governs its life. We should live in harmony with this great soul and love it more than we love ourselves."

"Those who have decided to dedicate their lives to spiritual perfection will never be dissatisfied or unhappy, because all that they want is in their power."

"How good a person feels when, exhausted from striving for goodness in his everyday life, he stretches out his hands to God."

"The universe is limitless, and impossible for anyone to understand. Therefore, we cannot completely understand the life of our own body."

"We suffer from our vices, and try to struggle with them, and the reason for this struggle is that we are not perfect. But our salvation is in this struggle with vices, and if God were to take away our ability to fight our vices, then we would be left with them forever."

"We are not satisfied with our real life. We want to live an imaginary life, a life in which we seem different in the eyes of other people than we are in reality."

"Those who do not hate their own selfishness, their placing of themselves higher than the rest of the world, are blind, because this action contradicts the truth."

"The virtue of a person is measured not by his outstanding efforts, but by his everyday behavior."

"Some people seek goodness in power, others in science, others in dissipation. Those people who are really close to goodness understand that real goodness for one is when all people have this goodness and share it among themselves."

"People jump back and forth in pursuit of pleasures only because they see the emptiness of their lives more clearly than they do the emptiness of whichever new entertainment attracts them."

"Subduing people through violence is never justice."

"Look for the truth; it wants to be found."

"Who brought me into this world? According to whose command do I find myself at this exact place, during this particular time? Life is the remembrance of a very short day we spent visiting this world."

"Is there anything more absurd than a person having a right to kill me because we live on two opposite banks of the river, and our kings quarrel with each other ?"

"Happiness and calmness are neither inside us nor outside us. They are in God, who is both inside and outside us."

"Every truth has its origin in God. When it is manifested in a man, this is not because it comes from him, but because he has such a quantity of transparency that he can reveal it."

"Solomon and Job knew and spoke wisely about the uselessness of human life. The first was the happiest, the second the unhappiest of all men. One knew the vanity of pleasure; the other, the reality of misfortune."

"In the scheme of the world, a person is no more than a pine cone, or a weak herb, or a bit of swamp grass, but he is a grass which possesses some intellect."

"Many of our vices exist only because they are supported by other vices; therefore, if we destroy our major vices, many others will disappear at once, in the same way as branches fall when you cut the trunk of a tree."

"There are two types of ignorance, the pure, natural ignorance into which all people are born, and the ignorance of the so-called wise. You will see that many among those who call themselves scholars do not know real life, and they despise simple people and simple things."

"There are some statements which cannot be fathomed: God exists or he does not exist; the soul exists in the body, or we do not have a soul; the world was created or the world was not created."

"If you want other people to speak well of you, do not speak well of yourself."

"You must love only God, and you must hate only yourself."

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It's horrible to see someone tremble over trifles and at the same time be insensitive to the biggest things.

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When we love, we see ourselves differently.

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Love or hate changes the truth.

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He is capable of little and much, everything and nothing; not an angel, not an animal: just a man.

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We do not long for peaceful, tranquil pleasures, because then we remember our unfortunate fate. We are not looking for danger, and not for unpleasant, embarrassing assignments, but for hustle and bustle, noise, because it diverts our unpleasant thoughts and amuses us.

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We must know what we are capable of; we are more than nothing, but we are not everything.

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Nothing is so important to man as his destiny, nothing is so terrifying as eternal life.

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Physical pain is only the punishment and reflection of mental pain.

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Neither true nor good is otherwise, only in part; mixed with bad and false.

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It is beyond imagination what God can create out of the broken pieces of our lives if we fully entrust them to Him.

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Mutual deception is an essential condition for people to live together; few friendships would remain if everyone knew what his friend said about him when he was not present, even though he spoke honestly and objectively.

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The last thing you know when writing a book is where you should have started.

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Man is a reed, nothing more, the weakest of nature - but a thinking reed. You don't need the whole universe to unite against it to crush it: a little mist, a single drop of water is enough to kill it. But a thinking reed. Even if he were trampled by all, he would still be nobler than his murderer, for he knows that he will die; however, the universe has no idea how much stronger it is than him.

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We must know our limitations. We are all something, but none of us can be everything.

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He who has no heart listens only with his ears.

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You wouldn't be looking for me if you hadn't already found me.

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Why is it that the lame man does not annoy us, while the lame mind irritates us? Because the lame man admits that we walk straight, but the limping mind asserts that we are limping; otherwise we would feel sorry for him, not annoyed.

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Our whole life revolves around knowing whether our soul is immortal or mortal. There is no doubt that according to whether the soul is mortal or immortal, morality must also be completely different.

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On what grounds do they claim that we cannot be resurrected? What is more difficult: to be born or to be resurrected; is that which never was, to be, or to continue to be what once was? Is it more difficult to be born to life than to return to life? Due to habit, we consider one to be easy, and the other to be impossible due to lack of habit.

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As God's works are eloquent to those who know Him and open to those who love Him, so He remains hidden to those who do not seek Him and do not know Him.

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I see a great deal of religion (...) in different countries of the world and in all times, but none of them can claim a morality that pleases me, nor internal evidence that would convince me once and for all. (...) But when I think like this about this whimsical and strange variety of morals and beliefs, in one corner of the world I see a strange people, different from all other peoples, more ancient than all of them, whose history is many, many centuries older than the oldest known to us . And I see that this great and numerous people, descended from one ancestor, worships one God and lives according to a law which it derives from God.

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Those who are used to judging by their intuition do not know anything about things that require conclusions, because they want to penetrate them at once, but they are not used to looking for the laws. On the other hand, those who reason based on laws do not understand what falls within the scope of intuition, because even then they are looking for laws and are unable to grasp everything with a single glance.

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Let us state: "Either there is God or there is not." Now, which view should we side with? Reason cannot decide this: we are separated by endless chaos. At the very end of this infinite distance, a game of chance takes place, and the result is heads or tails. (...) Let's consider what you can gain or lose if you bet on heads, that is, on the existence of God. We evaluate these two possibilities: if he wins, he wins everything; if you lose, you lose nothing. So bet without hesitation that it is.

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The big and the small have the same illnesses, annoyances and passions: but while one sits on the rim of the wheel, the other sits near the hub, so the same movement shakes him less.

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Some people draw correct conclusions from a small number of premises, this is one type of correct thinking.

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There is nothing we cannot make our nature: there is nothing we cannot lose.

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Justice and truth are two extremely delicate points, and our tools are too blunt to touch them flawlessly.

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If a person studied himself first, he would realize how incapable he is of overcoming himself.

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Man is nothing but a pile of mistakes, powerless without grace. Nothing shows him the truth, everything deceives him. The two main pillars of truth, reason and senses, mutually deceive each other.

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There are many kinds of right reasoning; some people think right in a certain way of thinking, but in another they do stupid things.

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Intuition belongs to the realm of seeing the essence, and sciences belong to the realm of reason.

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- Do you consider it impossible that God is infinite, that He has no parts? - Yes. - Then I will now show you something that is infinite and at the same time indivisible. A point that moves everywhere at infinite speed; because this point is present everywhere as one, but everywhere indivisible whole. Let this natural fact, which you just considered impossible, be the proof that there may be other similar ones, you just don't know them yet. So don't conclude from your studies that you have nothing more to learn; but that he still has an infinite amount to learn. The infinite movement, the point that fills everything, the moment of rest: indivisible and infinite, infinite without quantity.

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The science of external things never comforts my moral ignorance in times of sorrow; but the science of morals always consoles me for my ignorance of external things.

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All our misery can be attributed to our inability to sit quietly in a room alone.

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The world is ruled by chance, and that is why there is order and law in it, which unfolds from the mass of coincidences according to probabilities.

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In science (...) the freedom of thought cannot extend to the extent that facts are not taken into account. If a view contradicts the facts, or is downright nonsensical because it even contradicts itself and is logically flawed, then holding such a view is simply stupid.

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I don't have time to write you a short letter, so I'll write a long one.

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Thinking makes a person great. (...) All human dignity lies in thinking.

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This entire visible world is just an imperceptible point on the rich bosom of nature. No thought can approach it. No matter how much we screw up our ideas, expand them beyond the imaginable spaces, our imagination only gives birth to atoms instead of the reality of things.

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All I know is that I must die soon, but this inevitable death is what I know least about. (...) I see the terrible regions of the universe that surround me, and I am chained to a small corner of this enormous expanse without knowing why I was placed here rather than elsewhere, and why the little time I was given to live was just before me and it was assigned to this moment of eternity that continues after me.

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What an inviting thing painting is: it earns our admiration with the likeness of things that we do not stare at in their original form at all!

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According to all indications, man was created to think. In this lies all his dignity and all his merit. His only duty is to think correctly. And the order wants you to start thinking about yourself, your creator and your destiny.

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All human problems stem from the fact that we don't want to stay where we were born.

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We have more reason to deny its existence, because it cannot be proved, than to believe in it, simply because it cannot be proved that it does not exist.

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There are only three kinds of people; one kind is that which has found God and serves Him; the other, which seeks it with all its efforts, but has not yet found it; and finally the rest who live without looking for it and never found it. The first are intelligent and happy, the last are stupid and unhappy, the middle ones are unhappy and intelligent.

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We should be grateful to those who reveal our imperfections. Even if our imperfections don't disappear because of this, because we have a lot of them, still these imperfections - after we get to know them - begin to be unsuitable for our spirit, stimulate our conscience and we strive to improve and get rid of our mistakes.

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It was a storm of beauty to sit on a boat, in the certain knowledge that it would not perish. The persecutions that disturb the Church resemble such a storm.

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If we do not see clearly on some issue, it is good if there is some common error that everyone accepts.

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Since they could not make what was just be strong at the same time, people arranged for what was strong to be just. It is therefore necessary to connect the truth with the force, therefore either the truth must be made strong or the strong must be made just.

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Explanations that we come up with are usually more convincing than those that others have come up with.

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When our mind is tired in the search for truth, it is good to rest in the arms of faith.

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Many times you love someone who doesn't even know your feelings, and yet you remain as loyal to him as if your love was reciprocated.

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The wiser and better a person is, the more good he sees in people.

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There are two kinds of people, the righteous who think they are guilty, and the guilty who think they are righteous.

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The greatest wisdom in love is to be able to wait.

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Man is neither an angel nor an animal, and the biggest problem is that whoever wants to be an angel will become an animal.

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Reason does not know the arguments of the heart.

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To be unhappy is to feel unhappy; but to be great is to know that one is unhappy.

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We are comforted by nothingness, because nothingness also strikes us down.

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Beauty and reality, this is what is needed; but we must also draw beauty from reality.

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In love, silence is often a more profound speaker than words.

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When I see the blindness and misery of man, and look at this whole silent universe, and a man left alone in this corner of the universe, wandering in the dark, who has no idea who put him here, why he is here, what he will become when he dies, and is unable to know anything - a terror takes over me, like someone who has been exposed to a terrifying, deserted island in a dream, and then when he wakes up, he has no idea where he is, but there is no way to escape from it.

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Secret good deeds are the most precious.

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A drop of love is worth more than an ocean of understanding.

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If everyone knew what his fellow men were saying about him, there wouldn't be four friends in the world. This can be seen from the quarrels caused by the tactless rumors that are sometimes told back.

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Mathematics is such a serious subject that we should not miss any opportunity to make it more fun.

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Kind words don't cost much, but they are worth a lot.

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Just as cold words make people freeze, hot words burn them, bitter words make them bitter, angry words make them angry. Kind words also have their own spiritual effect. And what a great effect it is! They calm, soothe and comfort the listener.

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There is a God-shaped vacuum in every human heart that can never be filled by any created thing. Only God can fulfill it, revealed through Jesus Christ.

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To ignore philosophy is to really philosophize.

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We need to know ourselves: even if it doesn't help us to find the truth, it is at least good for us to create order in our lives, and there is nothing better than that.

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Even if someone has no interest in what he says, we should not necessarily conclude that he is not lying at all; because there are also people who lie simply for fun.

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Time brings healing to pain and strife, because a person changes in the meantime, he is no longer the same personality.

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It is easier to bear death if we do not think about it than the thought of it, even if we are not in danger.

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If we are used to explaining natural phenomena with incorrect reasons, we do not want to accept the correct ones, even if they are discovered in vain.

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Anyone who does not see the invitingness of the world is himself a very vain creature. Therefore, who would not see it, except the young, who immerse themselves in the pursuit of fame, entertainment, and planning for the future? But if we deprive them of their entertainment, we will see that they will be consumed by boredom; in such cases they also feel that they were nothing, even if they do not recognize it: for it is indeed an unhappy fate that an unbearable sadness immediately overwhelms us, as soon as we are forced to look within ourselves, and there is nothing to divert our attention from ourselves.

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Earthly things must be known in order to love them, but divine things must be loved in order to be known.

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We have such a lofty idea of ​​the human soul that we cannot bear to be despised or esteemed by a soul; all the happiness of men lies in this esteem.

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What is man in nature? Nothing compared to infinity, everything compared to nothing. Something between nothing and everything, in the middle.

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If we want to effectively refute someone, proving that they are wrong, we first examine the side from which they look at the matter, because from that side, they are usually right.

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There is nothing simpler in the world than a solved problem.

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Do you want people to think well of you? Don't say good things about yourself!

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What kind of monster is man? What kind of creature, monster, confusion, what kind of contradiction, what kind of miracle of nature did not exist until now? Judge of all and foolish earthworm; the custodian of truth and the cesspool of uncertainty, error; the glory and at the same time waste of everything.

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We sail in vast space, as a toy of chance.

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There are people who live their lives without any problems because they play small stakes every day. But let's just give him every morning the money he can win that day, and tell him not to play: we'll make him unhappy. They can say that he is not playing for profit, but for the fun of the game. So play without stakes, you won't enjoy it, you'll get bored. So he's not just looking for entertainment: he's bored by tepid, passionless entertainment. He must come to the fire, deceive himself, imagine that he would be happy if he won in a game, which he would not be willing to accept at the price of giving up the game.

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It is dangerous to convince people too much of how similar they are to animals, if we do not also point out their greatness. It is also dangerous to exaggerate his greatness but remain silent about his frailty. It is even more dangerous to remain ignorant of all of them. On the other hand, it will be very useful if we remind you of both.

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If we subject everything to reason, nothing supernatural and mysterious will remain in our religion, but if we violate the principles of reason, religion will become absurd and ridiculous.

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All people seek happiness, without exception, no matter how different the ways in which they try to achieve it.

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Law is powerless without force; force without justice is tyrannical.

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We never adapt to the present. We appreciate the future more, we feel as if it is coming too slowly, we want to speed up its occurrence. At the same time, we recall the past, we want to hold it back, we think it passes very quickly... Anyone who examines their thoughts notices that they only deal with the past or the future. We hardly think about our present, even then only as if we want to find out what we will do in the future. In fact, we never really live, we only hope that we will still live.

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Two extremes: exclude reason, accept only reason.

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Humanity is great because it knows how miserable it is.

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We hardly even think about the present; but if we do, it's only because we try to arrange our future in this world.

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The more meaningful one is, the more individual characteristics one discovers in people. The average person does not see any difference between them.

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There is no joy without fun, and no sorrow when having fun.

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Man does need all kinds of activities, whether physical, mental or emotional, in order to avoid at all costs his questions about himself, life, the meaning of his existence, the unbearable lack of answers and death.

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Even partial knowledge has value, but only if we can tell to what degree; if we numerically know the probability of an event, we know something definite about it, even though it is actually uncertain. Partial certainty must therefore be appreciated, but it should not be overestimated, and it should not be confused with complete certainty.

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As far as science is concerned, I think the freedom of individual opinion is really like life-giving air, without it you suffocate.

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We can determine what someone's virtue is capable of, not from his extraordinary achievements, but from his everyday behavior.

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Although we are slaves to the past, we are masters of the future.