Quotes by Blaise Pascal

The art of opposition and of revolution is to unsettle established customs, sounding them even to their source, to point out their want of authority and justice.

What a Chimera is man! What a novelty, a monster, a chaos, a contradiction, a prodigy! Judge of all things, an imbecile worm; depository of truth, and sewer of error and doubt; the glory and refuse of the universe.

Eloquence.— We need both what is pleasing and what is real, but that which pleases must itself be drawn from the true.

In every 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 these things.

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.

When I consider the small span of my life absorbed in the eternity of all time, or the small part of space which I can touch or see engulfed by the infinite immensity of spaces that I know not and that know me not, I am frightened and astonished to see myself here instead of there … now instead of then.

People almost invariably arrive at their beliefs not on the basis of proof but on the basis of what they find attractive.

I do not admire the excess of a virtue like courage unless I see at the same time an excess of the opposite virtue, as in Epaminondas, who possessed extreme courage and extreme kindness. We show greatness not by being at one extreme, but by touching both at once and occupying all the space in between.

The virtue of a man ought to be measured not by his extraordinary exertions, but by his every-day conduct.

Dull minds are never either intuitive or mathematical.

Il nest pas certain que tout soit incertain.(Translation: It is not certain that everything is uncertain.)

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

Knowing God without knowing our wretchedness leads to pride. Knowing our wretchedness without knowing God leads to despair. Knowing Jesus Christ is the middle course, because in him we find both God and our wretchedness.

We must keep our thought secret, and judge everything by it, while talking like the people.

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.

I have only made this letter longer because I have not had the time to make it sho

Our nature consists in motion complete rest is death.

No animal admires another animal.

Continuity in everything is unpleasant.

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