Quotes by
Blaise Pascal |
1623-1662 , French thinker
French mathematician, physicist, religious philosopher, inventor and writer. He laid the foundation for the modern theory of probabilities, formulated what came to be known as Pascal’s principle of pressure, and invented a mechanical calculator. His theories had an impact on such later philosophers as Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Henri Bergson and also on the Existentialists.Following a religious experience in 1654, he began writing influential works on philosophy and theology. His two most famous works date from this period: the Lettres provinciales and the Pensées.
| 34 quotes | 13,224 visits |
Quotations
| • | All of humanity’s problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone. 30 |
| • | Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction. 21 |
| • | Once your soul has been enlarged by a truth, it can never return to its original size. 18 |
| • | In difficult times carry something beautiful in your heart. 14 |
| • | I lay it down as a fact that if all men knew what others say of them, there would not be four friends in the world. 14 |
| • | There is a God-shaped hole in the life of every man. 13 |
| • | Reason's last step is the recognition that there are an infinite number of things which are beyond it. 13 |
| • | I would prefer an intelligent hell to a stupid paradise. 12 |
| • | The more I see of Mankind, the more I prefer my dog. 9 |
| • | The heart has its reasons which reason knows not. 9 |
| • | The eternal silence of these infinite spaces frightens me. 9 |
| • | Nothing is so intolerable to man as being fully at rest, without a passion, without business, without entertainment, without care. 9 |
| • | It's not those who write the laws that have the greatest impact on society. It's those who write the songs. 9 |
| • | I have only made this letter longer because I have not had the time to make it shorter 9 |
| • | Curiosity is only vanity. We usually only want to know something so that we can talk about it. 9 |
| • | Habit is a second nature that destroys the first. 8 |
| • | Kind words do not cost much. Yet they accomplish much. 8 |
| • | In faith there is enough light for those who want to believe and enough shadows to blind those who don't. 8 |
| • | You always admire what you really don't understand. 7 |
| • | To understand is to forgive. 7 |
| • | If you gain, you gain all. If you lose, you lose nothing. Wager then, without hesitation, that He exists. 7 |
| • | Do you wish people to think well of you? Don't speak well of yourself. 7 |
| • | Since we cannot know all there is to be known about anything, we ought to know a little about everything. 6 |
| • | Clarity of mind means clarity of passion, too; this is why a great and clear mind loves ardently and sees distinctly what it loves. 6 |
| • | God would be unjust if we were not guilty. 5 |
| • | Faith embraces many truths which seem to contradict each other. 5 |
| • | Nature is an infinite sphere whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere. 5 |
| • | Men are so necessarily mad, that not to be mad would amount to another form of madness. 5 |
| • | If we examine our thoughts, we shall find them always occupied with the past and the future. 4 |
| • | It is incomprehensible that God should exist, and it is incomprehensible that he should not exist. 4 |
| • | Little things comfort us because little things distress us. 4 |
| • | Justice without force is powerless; force without justice is tyrannical. 4 |
| • | People almost invariably arrive at their beliefs not on the basis of proof but on the basis of what they find attractive. 3 |
| • | Cleopatra's nose, had it been shorter, the whole face of the world would have been changed. 3 |
