Pascal Quotes

Amusement that is excessive and followed only for its own sake, allures and deceives us.

All men seek happiness. There are no exceptions.... This is the motive of every act of every man, including those who go and hang themselves.

Nothing is surer than that the people will be weak.

Bless yourself with holy water, have Masses said, and so on; by a simple and natural process this will make you believe, and will dull you - will quiet your proudly critical intellect.

If men knew themselves, God would heal and pardon them.

The statements of atheists ought to be perfectly clear of doubt. Now it is not perfectly clear that the soul is material.

The mind naturally makes progress, and the will naturally clings to objects; so that for want of right objects, it will attach itself to wrong ones.

How hollow is the heart of man, and how full of excrement!

Either God exists or He doesn't. Either I believe in God or I don't. Of the four possibilities, only one is to my disadvantage. To avoid that possibility, I believe in God.

The Church limits her sacramental services to the faithful. Christ gave Himself upon the cross a ransom for all.

How I hate this folly of not believing in the Eucharist, etc.! If the gospel be true, if Jesus Christ be God, what difficulty is there?

The world is satisfied with words. Few appreciate the things beneath. [Fr., Le monde se paye de paroles; peu approfondissement les choses.]

At the centre of every human being is a God-shaped vacuum which can only be filled by Jesus Christ.

Continuous eloquence is tedious.

If man were happy, he would be the more so, the less he was diverted, like the saints and God.

Man governs himself more by impulse than reason

Look for the truth, it wants to be found.

True eloquence makes light of eloquence. True morality makes light of morality.

The heart has its reasons, which Reason does not know. We feel it in a thousand things. It is the heart which feels God, and not Reason. This, then, is perfect faith: God felt in the heart.

Why God has instituted Prayer:— To communicate to his creatures the dignity of causation.

It is a dangerous experiment to call in gratitude as an ally to love. Love is a debt which inclination always pays, obligation never.

The eternal Being is forever if he is at all.

Man is so made that if he is told often enough that he is a fool he believes it.

If a soldier or labourer complain of the hardship of his lot, set him to do nothing.

All of our miseries prove our greatness. They are the miseries of a dethroned monarch.

Reason's last step is to acknowledge that there are infinitely many things beyond it.

If he exalts himself, I humble him. If he humbles himself, I exalt him. And I go on contradicting him Until he understands That he is a monster that passes all understanding.

Those we call the ancients were really new in everything.

When some passion or effect is described in a natural style, we find within ourselves the truth of what we hear, without knowing it was there.

Let each of us examine his thoughts

We have so exalted a notion of the human soul that we cannot bear to be despised, or even not to be esteemed by it. Man, in fact, places all his happiness in this esteem.

The last advance of reason is to recognize that it is surpassed by innumerable things; it is feeble if it cannot realize that.

Le nez de Cle opa" tre: s'il e u" t e te plus court, toute la face de la terre aurait change . Cleopatra'snose: if it had beenshorter the whole face of the earth would have been different.

The Fall is an offense to human reason, but once accepted, it makes perfect sense of the human condition.

I cannot judge my work while I am doing it. I have to do as painters do, stand back and view it from a distance, but not too great a distance. How great? Guess.

When we would think of God, how many things we find which turn us away from Him, and tempt us to think otherwise. All this is evil, yet it is innate.

Nature confuses the skeptics and reason confutes the dogmatists

Who confers reputation? who gives respect and veneration to persons, to books, to great men? Who but Opinion? How utterly insufficient are all the riches of the world without her approbation!

It is not our task to secure the triumph of truth, but merely to fight on its behalf.

The last thing we decide in writing a book is what to put first.

To ridicule philosophy is truly philosophical. [Fr., Se moquer de la philosophie c'est vraiment philosophe.]

La chose la plus importante a' toute la vie est le choix du me tier: le hasard en dispose. The most important thing in life is to choose a profession: chance arranges for that.

Montaigne is wrong in declaring that custom ought to be followed simply because it is custom, and not because it is reasonable or just.

We do not worry about being respected in towns through which we pass. But if we are going to remain in one for a certain time, we do worry. How long does this time have to be?

The married should not forget that to speak of love begets love.

I know whom I have believed.

Man's true nature being lost, everything becomes his nature; as, his true good being lost, everything becomes his good.

Custom creates the whole of equity, for the simple reason that it is accepted.

Imagination is the deceptive part in man, the mistress of error and falsehood.

If man made himself the first object of study, he would see how incapable he is of going further. How can a part know the whole?