Blaise Pascal
Let us imagine a number of men in chains and all condemned to death, where some are killed each day in the sight of the others, and those who remain see their own fate in that of their fellows and wait their turn, looking at each other sorrowfully and without hope. It is an image of the condition of man.Collection: Death
Excuse me, pray." Without that excuse I would not have known there was anything amiss.Collection: Apology
Nothing is surer than that the people will be weak.Collection: People
The stream is always purer at its source.Collection: Purity
It is dangerous to tell the people that the laws are unjust; for they obey them only because they think them just. Therefore it isnecessary to tell them at the same time that they must obey them because they are laws, just as they must obey superiors, not because they are just, but because they are superiors. In this way all sedition is prevented.Collection: Thinking
Our achievements of today are but the sum total of our thoughts of yesterday.Collection: Yesterday
It is the heart which perceives God and not the reason.Collection: Heart
There is no arena in which vanity displays itself under such a variety of forms as in conversation.Collection: Vanity
Orthodoxy on one side of the Pyrenees may be heresy on the other.Collection: Sides
Our own interests are still an exquisite means for dazzling our eyes agreeably.Collection: Mean
To doubt is a misfortune, but to seek when in doubt is an indispensable duty. So he who doubts and seeks not is at once unfortunate and unfair.Collection: Doubt
If there is a God, He is infinitely incomprehensible, since, having, neither parts nor limits, He has no affinity to us. We are then incapable of knowing either what He is or if He is. [So] you must wager. Let us weigh the gain and the loss in wagering that God is. Let us estimate these two chances. If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager then without hesitation that he is.Collection: Atheist
Man is neither angel nor beast.Collection: Angel
Things have different qualities, and the soul different inclinations; for nothing is simple which is presented to the soul, and the soul never presents itself simply to any object. Hence it comes that we weep and laugh at the same thing.Collection: Simple
It is superstitious to put one's hopes in formalities, but arrogant to refuse to submit to them.Collection: Arrogant
I am in the utmost perplexity, yand have wished a hundred times, that if there is a A God, nature would manifest him without ambiguity, and that if there is not, every imaginary sign of his existence might vanish : in short, let nature speak distinctly, or be totally silent, and I shall know what course to take.Collection: Nature
It is not possible to have reasonable grounds for not believing in miracles.Collection: Believe
Eloquence is a painting of thought; and thus those who, after having painted it, add something more, make a picture instead of a portrait.Collection: Thoughtful
I condemn equally those who choose to praise man, those who choose to condemn him and those who choose to divert themselves, and I can only approve of those who seek with groans.Collection: Men
When a man who accepts the Christian doctrine lives unworthily of it, it is much clearer to say he is a bad Christian than to say he is not a Christian.Collection: Christian
Look somewhere else for someone who can follow you in your researches about numbers. For my part, I confess that they are far beyond me, and I am competent only to admire them.Collection: Math
Which is the more believable of the two, Moses or China?Collection: Two
Two similar faces, neither of which alone causes laughter, use laughter when they are together, by their resemblance.Collection: Laughter
Let us now speak according to natural lights. If there is a God, He is infinitely incomprehensible. . . . We are then incapable of knowing of either what He is or if He is. . . .Collection: Light
You gave me health that I might serve you; and so often I failed to use my good health in your service. Now you send me sickness in order to correct me Grant that, having ignored the things of spirit when my body was vigorous, I may now enjoy spiritual sweetness while my body groans with pain.Collection: Spiritual
Let a man choose what condition he will, and let him accumulate around him all the goods and gratifications seemingly calculated to make him happy in it; if that man is left at any time without occupation or amusement, and reflects on what he is, the meagre, languid felicity of his present lot will not bear him up. He will turn necessarily to gloomy anticipations of the future; and unless his occupation calls him out of himself, he is inevitably wretched.Collection: Happiness
No one is ignorant that there are two avenues by which opinions are received into the soul, which are its two principal powers: the understanding and the will.Collection: Two
Equality of possessions is no doubt right, but, as men could not make might obey right, they have made right obey might.Collection: Men
We must make good people wish that the Christian faith were true, and then show that it is.Collection: Christian
Piety is different from superstition. To carry piety to the extent of superstition is to destroy it. The heretics reproach us with this superstitious submission. It is doing what they reproach us with.Collection: Different
Our true dignity consists — in thought. Thence we must derive our elevation, not from space or duration. Let us endeavor then to think well; this is the principle of morals.Collection: Thinking
If we dreamed the same thing every night, it would affect us much as the objects we see every day. And if a common workman were sure to dream every night for twelve hours that he was a king, I believe he would be almost as happy as a king who should dream every night for twelve hours on end that he was a common workman.Collection: Dream
You see, if the height of the mercury [barometer] column is less on the top of a mountain than at the foot of it (as I have many reasons for believing, although everyone who has so far written about it is of the contrary opinion), it follows that the weight of the air must be the sole cause of the phenomenon, and not that abhorrence of a vacuum, since it is obvious that at the foot of the mountain there is more air to have weight than at the summit, and we cannot possibly say that the air at the foot of the mountain has a greater aversion to empty space than at the top.Collection: Believe
What matters it that man should have a little more knowledge of the universe? If he has it, he gets little higher. Is he not always infinitely removed from the end, and is not the duration of our life equally removed from eternity, even if it lasts ten years longer?Collection: Knowledge
Since [man] is infinitely removed from comprehending the extremes, the end of things and their beginning are hopelessly hidden from him in an impenetrable secret; he is equally incapable of seeing the nothing from which he was made, and the infinite in which he is swallowed up.Collection: Knowledge
Seeing too much to deny and too little to be sure, I am in a state to be pitied.Collection: Littles
Dull minds are never either intuitive or mathematical.Collection: Mind
If a man is not made for God, why is he happy only in God?Collection: Faith
A man does not show his greatness by being at one extremity, but rather by touching both at once.Collection: Greatness
The entire ocean is affected by a single pebble.Collection: Ocean
Who knows if this other half of life where we think we're awake is not another sleep a little different from the first.Collection: Sleep
If god does not exist, one loses nothing by believing in him anyway, while if he does exist, one stands to lose everything by not believing.Collection: Religious
The last function of reason is to recognize that there are an infinity of things which surpass it.Collection: History
Fear not, provided you fear; but if you fear not, then fear.Collection: Fear Not
Silence. All human unhappiness comes from not knowing how to stay quietly in a room.Collection: Happiness
Faith is a sounder guide than reason. Reason can only go so far, but faith has no limits.Collection: Faith
Continuous eloquence wearies.Collection: Eloquence
There is a God-shaped hole in the life of every man.Collection: Men
Those are weaklings who know the truth and uphold it as long as it suits their purpose, and then abandon it.Collection: Truth