You see, if the height of the mercury [barometer] column is less on the top of a mountain than at the foot of it (as I have many reasons for believing, although everyone who has so far written about it is of the contrary opinion), it follows that the weight of the air must be the sole cause of the phenomenon, and not that abhorrence of a vacuum, since it is obvious that at the foot of the mountain there is more air to have weight than at the summit, and we cannot possibly say that the air at the foot of the mountain has a greater aversion to empty space than at the top.
Blaise PascalWe sometimes learn more from the sight of evil than from an example of good; and it is well to accustom ourselves to profit by the evil which is so common, while that which is good is so rare.
Blaise PascalSymmetry is what we see at a glance; based on the fact that there is no reason for any difference.
Blaise PascalIf a man loves a woman for her beauty, does he love her? No; for the smallpox, which destroys her beauty without killing her, causes his love to cease. And if any one loves me for my judgment or my memory, does he really love me? No; for I can lose these qualities without ceasing to be.
Blaise PascalEloquence is a way of saying things in such a way, first, that those to whom we speak may listen to them without pain and with pleasure, and second, that they feel themselves interested, so that self-love leads them more willingly to reflection upon it.
Blaise PascalWhen we see an effect happen always in the same manner, we infer that it takes place by a natural necessity; as, for instance, that the sun will rise to morrow; but nature often deceives us, and will not submit to its own rules.
Blaise PascalAll men have happiness as their object: there is no exception. However different the means they employ, they all aim at the same end.
Blaise PascalNo one is offended at not seeing everything; but one does not like to be mistaken, and that perhaps arises from the fact that man naturally cannot see everything, and that naturally he cannot err in the side he looks at, since the perceptions of our senses are always true.
Blaise PascalThe mind of the greatest man on earth is not so independent of circumstances as not to feel inconvenienced by the merest buzzing noise about him; it does not need the report of a cannon to disturb his thoughts. The creaking of a vane or a pully is quite enough. Do not wonder that he reasons ill just now; a fly is buzzing by his ear; it is quite enough to unfit him for giving good counsel.
Blaise PascalPiety is different from superstition. To carry piety to the extent of superstition is to destroy it. The heretics reproach us with this superstitious submission. It is doing what they reproach us with.
Blaise PascalFaith 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.
Blaise PascalIf it is an extraordinary blindness to live without investigating what we are, it is a terrible one to live an evil life, while believing in God
Blaise PascalOnce your soul has been enlarged by a truth, it can never return to its original size.
Blaise PascalDiscourses on humility are a source of pride in the vain and of humility in the humble.
Blaise PascalIt is right that what is just should be obeyed. It is necessary that what is strongest should be obeyed.
Blaise PascalNo man ever believes with a true and saving faith unless God inclines his heart; and no man when God does incline his heart can refrain from believing.
Blaise PascalNot the zeal alone of those who seek Him proves God, but the blindness of those who seek Him not.
Blaise PascalOur soul is cast into a body, where it finds number, time, dimension. Thereupon it reasons, and calls this nature necessity, and can believe nothing else.
Blaise PascalToo much and too little wine. Give him none, he cannot find truth; give him too much, the same.
Blaise PascalIf you want to be a real seeker of truth, you need to, at least once in your lifetime, doubt in, as much as it's possible, in everything.
Blaise PascalIn faith there is enough light for those who want to believe and enough shadows to blind those who don't.
Blaise PascalEvil is easily discovered; there is an infinite variety; good is almost unique. But some kinds of evil are almost as difficult to discover as that which we call good; and often particular evil of this class passes for good. It needs even a certain greatness of soul to attain to this, as to that which is good.
Blaise PascalTruly it is an evil to be full of faults; but it is a still greater evil to be full of them and to be unwilling to recognize them, since that is to add the further fault of a voluntary illusion.
Blaise PascalWhy God has instituted Prayer:— To communicate to his creatures the dignity of causation.
Blaise PascalIf you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager, then, without hesitation, that He exists.
Blaise PascalThe 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.
Blaise PascalDiscourses on humility are a source of pride in the vain and of humility in the humble. So those on scepticism cause believers to affirm. Few men speak humbly of humility, chastely of chastity, few doubtingly of scepticism.
Blaise PascalWe must make good people wish that the Christian faith were true, and then show that it is.
Blaise PascalKind words produce their own image in men's souls; and a beautiful image it is. They soothe and quiet and comfort the hearer. They shame him out of his sour, morose, unkind feelings. We have not yet begun to use kind words in such abundance as they ought to be used.
Blaise PascalIt is superstitious to put one's hopes in formalities, but arrogant to refuse to submit to them.
Blaise PascalAs we speak of poetical beauty, so ought we to speak of mathematical beauty and medical beauty. But we do not do so; and that reason is that we know well what is the object of mathematics, and that it consists in proofs, and what is the object of medicine, and that it consists in healing. But we do not know in what grace consists, which is the object of poetry.
Blaise PascalMan is obviously made for thinking. Therein lies all his dignity and his merit; and his whole duty is to think as he ought.
Blaise PascalAll men seek happiness. There are no exceptions.... This is the motive of every act of every man, including those who go and hang themselves.
Blaise PascalThe pagans do not know God, and love only the earth. The Jews know the true God, and love only the earth. The Christians know the true God, and do not love the earth.
Blaise Pascal