Blaise Pascal Quotes

Continuous eloquence is tedious.

All man's troubles come from not knowing how to sit still in one room.

If man should commence by studying himself, he would see how impossible it is to go further.

It is an appalling thing to feel all one possesses drain away.

No one is discontented at not being a king except a discrowned king ... unhappiness almost invariably indicates the existence of a road not taken, a talent undeveloped, a self not recognized.

Those great efforts of intellect, upon which the mind sometimes touches, are such that it cannot maintain itself there. It only leaps to them, not as upon a throne, forever, but merely for an instant.

There is a God-shaped hole in the life of every man.

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

Nature, which alone is good, is wholly familiar and common.

The heart has its reasons, which Reason does not know. We feel it in a thousand things. It is the heart which feels God, and not Reason. This, then, is perfect faith: God felt in the heart.

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.

It is not from space that I must seek my dignity, but from the government of my thought. I shall have no more if I possess worlds. By space the universe encompasses and swallows me up like an atom; by thought I comprehend the world.

We must learn our limits. We are all something, but none of us are everything.

Nature imitates herself. A grain thrown into good ground brings forth fruit; a principle thrown into a good mind brings forth fruit. Everything is created and conducted by the same Master-the root, the branch, the fruits-the principles, the consequences.

Noble deeds that are concealed are most esteemed.

One has followed the other in an endless circle, for it is certain that as man's insight increases so he finds both wretchedness and greatness within himself. In a word man knows he is wretched. Thus he is wretched because he is so, but he is truly great because he knows it.

The war existing between the senses and reason.

Just as all things speak about God to those that know Him, and reveal Him to those that love Him, they also hide Him from all those that neither seek nor know Him.

The origins of disputes between philosophers is, that one class of them have undertaken to raise man by displaying his greatness, and the other to debase him by showing his miseries.

There would be too great darkness, if truth had not visible signs.

If man made himself the first object of study, he would see how incapable he is of going further. How can a part know the whole?

The struggle alone pleases us, not the victory.

The state of man is inconstancy, ennui, anxiety.

St. Augustine teaches us that there is in each man a Serpent, an Eve, and an Adam. Our senses and natural propensities are the Serpent; the excitable desire is the Eve; and reason is the Adam. Our nature tempts us perpetually; criminal desire is often excited; but sin is not completed till reason consents.

The greatness of man is so evident that it is even proved by his wretchedness. For what in animals is nature, we call in man wretchedness--by which we recognize that, his nature being now like that of animals, he has fallen from a better nature which once was his.

Nature has made all her truths independent of one another. Our art makes one dependent on the other. But this is not natural. Each keeps its own place.

How can anyone lose who chooses to become a Christian? If, when he dies, there turns out to be no God and his faith was in vain, he has lost nothing...If, however, there is a God and a heaven and a hell. then he has gained heaven and his skeptical friends have lost everything.

We sail within a vast sphere, ever drifting in uncertainty, driven from end to end. When we think to attach ourselves to any pointand to fasten to it, it wavers and leaves us; and if we follow it, it eludes our grasp, slips past us, and vanishes for ever. Nothing stays for us.

Wisdom leads us back to childhood.

[On vanity:] The nose of Cleopatra: if it had been shorter, the face of the earth would have changed.

Eloquence is the painting of thought.

The weakness of human reason appears more evidently in those who know it not than in those who know it.

I am in the utmost perplexity, yand have wished a hundred times, that if there is a A God, nature would manifest him without ambiguity, and that if there is not, every imaginary sign of his existence might vanish : in short, let nature speak distinctly, or be totally silent, and I shall know what course to take.

To go beyond the bounds of moderation is to outrage humanity. The greatness of the human soul is shown by knowing how to keep within proper bounds. There are two equally dangerous extremes- to shut reason out, and not to let nothing in.

Reason is the slow and torturous method by which those who do not know the truth discover it

Happiness is neither within us, nor without us. It is in the union of ourselves with God.

However vast a man's spiritual resources, he is capable of but one great passion.

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

All our dignity lies in our thoughts.

When a natural discourse paints a passion or an effect, one feels within oneself the truth of what one reads, which was there before, although one did not know it. Hence one is inclined to love him who makes us feel it, for he has not shown us his own riches, but ours. ...such community of intellect that we have with him necessarily inclines the heart to love.

If there were only one religion, God would indeed be manifest.

Nothing is surer than that the people will be weak.

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

We sail within a vast sphere, ever drifting in uncertainty, driven from end to end.

The last advance of reason is to recognize that it is surpassed by innumerable things; it is feeble if it cannot realize that.

When some passion or effect is described in a natural style, we find within ourselves the truth of what we hear, without knowing it was there.

Let no one say that I have said nothing new... the arrangement of the subject is new. When we play tennis, we both play with the same ball, but one of us places it better.

If we let ourselves believe that man began with divine grace, that he forfeited this by sin, and that he can be redeemed only by divine grace through the crucified Christ, then we shall find peace of mind never granted to philosophers. He who cannot believe is cursed, for he reveals by his unbelief that God has not chosen to give him grace.