Blaise Pascal
Instead of complaining that God had hidden himself, you will give Him thanks for having revealed so much of Himself.Collection: Giving
Kind words produce their images on men's souls.Collection: Men
What a difficult thing it is to ask someone's advice on a matter without coloring his judgment by the way in which we present our problem.Collection: Advice
Fashion is a tyrant from which nothing frees us. We must suit ourselves to its fantastic tastes. But being compelled to live under its foolish laws, the wise man is never the first to follow, nor the last to keep it.Collection: Wise
The property of power is to protect.Collection: Power
A mere trifle consoles us, for a mere trifle distresses us.Collection: Trifles
The sweetness of glory is so great that, join it to what we will, even to death, we love it.Collection: Glory
The Christian's God does not merely consist of a God who is the Author of mathematical truths and the order of the elements. The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, the God of the Christians, is a God of love and consolation.Collection: Christian
Il n'est pas certain que tout soit incertain. (Translation: It is not certain that everything is uncertain.)Collection: Uncertain
Quand on voit le style naturel, on est tout e tonne et ravi, car on s'attendait de voir un auteur, et on trouve un homme. When we see a natural style we are quite amazed and delighted, because we expected to see an author and find a man.Collection: Men
Without [diversion] we would be in a state of weariness, and this weariness would spur us on to seek a more solid means of escaping from it. But diversion amuses us, and leads us unconsciously to death.Collection: Death
The world is ruled by force, not by opinion; but opinion uses force.Collection: Use
Each one is all in all to himself; for being dead, all is dead to him.Collection: Self
Must we kill to prevent there being any wicked? This is to make both parties wicked instead of one.Collection: Party
Extremes are for us as if they were not, and as if we were not in regard to them; they escape from us, or we from them.Collection: Extremes
We feel neither extreme heat nor extreme cold; qualities that are in excess are so much at variance with our feelings that they are impalpable: we do not feel them, though we suffer from their effects.Collection: Feelings
We have an idea of truth, invincible to all scepticism.Collection: Truth
All mankind's troubles are caused by one single thing, which is their inability to sit quietly.Collection: Life
Symmetry is what we see at a glance; based on the fact that there is no reason for any difference.Collection: Differences
May God never abandon me.Collection: May
Nothing is so conformable to reason as to disavow reason.Collection: Reason
Nobody is publicly accepted as an expert on poetry unless he displays the sign of poet, mathematician, etc., but universal men want no sign and make hardly any distinction between the crafts of poet and embroiderer. Universal men are not called poets or mathematicians, etc. But they are all these things and judges of them too. No one could guess what they are, and they will talk about whatever was being talked about when they came in. One quality is not more noticeable in them than another, unless it becomes necessary to put it into practice, and then we remember it.Collection: Men
We must know where to doubt, where to feel certain, where to submit. He who does not do so, understands not the force of reason.Collection: Doubt
The philosophers talk to you about the dignity of man, and they tempt you to pride, or they talk to you about the misery of man, and they tempt you to despair.Collection: Pride
I have spent much time in the study of the abstract sciences; but the paucity of persons with whom you can communicate on such subjects disgusted me with them. When I began to study man, I saw that these abstract sciences are not suited to him, and that in diving into them, I wandered farther from my real object than those who knew them not, and I forgave them for not having attended to these things. I expected then, however, that I should find some companions in the study of man, since it was so specifically a duty. I was in error. There are fewer students of man than of geometry.Collection: Real
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?Collection: Time
All err the more dangerously because each follows a truth. Their mistake lies not in following a falsehood but in not following another truth.Collection: Mistake
God is, or He is not." But to which side shall we incline? Reason can decide nothing here. There is an infinite chaos which separated us. A game is being played at the extremity of this infinite distance where heads or tails will turn up. What will you wager?Collection: God
I know whom I have believed.Collection: Faith
When we see an effect happen always in the same manner, we infer that it takes place by a natural necessity; as, for instance, that the sun will rise to morrow; but nature often deceives us, and will not submit to its own rules.Collection: Nature
Any unity which doesn't have its origin in the multitudes is tyranny.Collection: Unity
The married should not forget that to speak of love begets love.Collection: Marriage
Opinion is the queen of the world.Collection: Queens
Clarity of mind means clarity of passion, too.Collection: Passion
Thinking too little about things or thinking too much both make us obstinate and fanatical.Collection: Thinking
It is not shameful for a man to succumb to pain and it is shameful to succumb to pleasure.Collection: Pain
Justice is as much a matter of fashion as charm is.Collection: Fashion
Ugly deeds are most estimable when hidden.Collection: Deeds
...for the truth is always older than all the opinions men have held regarding it; and one should be ignoring the nature of truth if we imagined that the truth began at the time it came to be known.Collection: Truth
Fire. God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, not of the philosophers and the scholars. I will not forget thy word. Amen.Collection: Fire
How vain painting is, exciting admiration by its resemblance to things of which we do not admire the originals.Collection: Admiration
The truth about nature we discover with our brains. The truth about religion we discover with our hearts.Collection: Heart