Blaise Pascal Quotes

The heart has its reasons which reason knows not.

The last thing we discover in composing a work is what to put down first.

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.

I made this [letter] very long, because I did not have the leisure to make it shorter.

Truth is so obscure in these times, and falsehood so established, that, unless we love the truth, we cannot know it.

It is man's natural sickness to believe that he possesses the truth.

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

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

To make light of philosophy is to be a true philosopher.

To ridicule philosophy is really to philosophize.

Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature; but he is a thinking reed.

Δύο υπερβολές : ν' αποκλείουμε το Λόγο, και να μη δεχόμαστε παρά μόνο το Λόγο.

Happiness is neither within us only, or without us; it is the union of ourselves with God.

Fire. God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, not of the philosophers and the scholars. I will not forget thy word. Amen.

The last thing one discovers in composing a work is what to put first.

Since we cannot know all there is to be known about anything, we ought to know a little about everything.

If we submit everything to reason our religion will be left with nothing mysterious or supernatural. If we offend the principles of reason our religion will be absurd and ridiculous . . . There are two equally dangerous extremes: to exclude reason, to admit nothing but reason.

No religion except ours has taught that man is born in sin; none of the philosophical sects has admitted it; none therefore has spoken the truth

Nie betrieben die Menschen das Böse so umfassend und freudig wie aus religiöser Überzeugung.

Love knows no limit to its endurance, no end to its trust, no fading of its hope; it can outlast anything. Love still stands when all else has fallen.