Blaise Pascal

Blaise PascalBlaise Pascal (1623-1662) was a French mathematician, physicist, inventor, philosopher, and Catholic writer. He was a child prodigy who was educated by his father, a tax collector.

Blaise Pascal Quotes

The manner in which Epictetus, Montaigne, and Salomon de Tultie wrote, is the most usual, the most suggestive, the most remembered, and the oftener quoted; because it is entirely composed of thoughts born from the common talk of life.

—Blaise Pascal

Knowing God without knowing our wretchedness leads to pride. Knowing our wretchedness without knowing God leads to despair. Knowing Jesus Christ is the middle course, because in him we find both God and our wretchedness.

—Blaise Pascal

When a soldier complains of his hard life (or a labourer, etc.) try giving him nothing to do.

—Blaise Pascal

The weather and my mood have little connection. I have my foggy and my fine days within me; my prosperity or misfortune has little to do with the matter.

—Blaise Pascal

I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time.

—Blaise Pascal

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

—Blaise Pascal

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

—Blaise Pascal

We are generally the better persuaded by the reasons we discover ourselves than by those given to us by others.

—Blaise Pascal

When one does not love too much, one does not love enough.

—Blaise Pascal

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

—Blaise Pascal

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

—Blaise Pascal

The heart has its reasons which reason knows nothing of.. We know the truth not only by the reason, but by the heart.

—Blaise Pascal

You always admire what you really don’t understand.

—Blaise Pascal

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

—Blaise Pascal

Kind words don’t cost much. Yet they accomplish much.

—Blaise Pascal

People almost invariably arrive at their beliefs not on the basis of proof but on the basis of what they find attractive.

—Blaise Pascal

All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.

—Blaise Pascal

There is enough light for those who only desire to see, and enough obscurity for those who have a contrary disposition.

—Blaise Pascal

The manner in which Epictetus, Montaigne, and Salomon de Tultie wrote, is the most usual, the most suggestive, the most remembered, and the oftener quoted; because it is entirely composed of thoughts born from the common talk of life.

—Blaise Pascal

Knowing God without knowing our wretchedness leads to pride. Knowing our wretchedness without knowing God leads to despair. Knowing Jesus Christ is the middle course, because in him we find both God and our wretchedness.

—Blaise Pascal

Symmetry is what we see at a glance; based on the fact that there is no reason for any difference.

—Blaise Pascal

Men seek rest in a struggle against difficulties; and when they have conquered these, rest becomes insufferable.

—Blaise Pascal

The last function of reason is to recognize that there are an infinity of things which surpass it.

—Blaise Pascal

Nature has made all her truths independent of one another. Our art makes one dependent on the other.

—Blaise Pascal

The eternal silence of these infinite spaces frightens me.

—Blaise Pascal

Reason’s last step is the recognition that there are an infinite number of things which are beyond it.

—Blaise Pascal

Kind words do not cost much. Yet they accomplish much.

—Blaise Pascal

I would prefer an intelligent hell to a stupid paradise.

—Blaise Pascal

Curiosity is only vanity. We usually only want to know something so that we can talk about it.

—Blaise Pascal

I have only made this letter longer because I have not had the time to make it shorter.

—Blaise Pascal