Home > Author > Blaise Pascal
21 " All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone. "
― Blaise Pascal , Pensées
22 " There is nothing we can now call our own, for what we call so is the effect of art; crimes are made by decrees of the senate, or by the votes of the people; and as here-to-fore we are burdened by vices, so now we are oppressed by laws. "
― Blaise Pascal
23 " There is a certain standard of grace and beauty which consists in a certain relation between our nature... and the thing which pleases us. "
24 " When we read too fast or too slowly, we understand nothing. "
25 " I would prefer an intelligent hell to a stupid paradise. "
26 " Lust is the source of all our actions, and humanity. "
27 " Nature has made all her truths independent of one another. Our art makes one dependent on the other. "
28 " Those honor nature well, who teach that she can speak on everything. "
29 " All things can be deadly to us, even the things made to serve us; as in nature walls can kill us, and stairs can kill us, if we do not walk circumspectly. "
30 " The heart has its order, the mind has its own, which uses principles and demonstrations. The heart has a different one. We do not prove that we ought to be loved by setting out in order the causes of love; that would be absurd. "
31 " Knowlege of God without knowledge of man's wretchedness leads to pride. Knowledge of man's wretchedness without knowledge of God leads to despair. Knowledge of Jesus Christ is the middle course, because by it we discover both God and our wretched state. "
32 " Our intellect holds the same position in the world of thought as our body occupies in the expanse of nature. "
33 " The infinite distance between the mind & the body is a symbol of the distance that is infinitely more, between the intellect & love, for love is divine. "
― Blaise Pascal , The Mind on Fire: A Faith for the Skeptical and Indifferent
34 " We do not content ourselves with the life we have in ourselves and in our own being; we desire to live an imaginary life in the mind of others, and for this purpose we endeavour to shine. We labour unceasingly to adorn and preserve this imaginary existence, and neglect the real. And if we possess calmness, or generosity, or truthfulness, we are eager to make it known, so as to attach these virtues to that imaginary existence. We would rather separate them from ourselves to join them to it; and we would willingly be cowards in order to acquire the reputation of being brave. A great proof of the nothingness of our being, not to be satisfied with the one without the other, and to renounce the one for the other! For he would be infamous who would not die to preserve his honour. "
35 " The last thing we discover in composing a work is what to put down first. "
36 " If we examine our thoughts, we shall find them always occupied with the past and the future. "
37 " God instituted prayer to communicate to creatures the dignity of causality. "
38 " Men are so inevitably mad that not to be mad would be to give a mad twist to madness. "
39 " Kind words produce their images on men's souls. "
40 " Even those who write against fame wish for the fame of having written well, and those who read their works desire the fame of having read them. "