Pensées Quotes

“This is what I see and what troubles me. I look on all sides, and I see only darkness everywhere. Nature presents to me nothing which is not matter of doubt and concern. If I saw nothing there which revealed a Divinity, I would come to a negative conclusion; if I saw everywhere the signs of a Creator, I would remain peacefully in faith. But, seeing too much to deny and too little to be sure, I am in a state to be pitied; wherefore I have a hundred time wished that if a God maintains nature, she should testify to Him unequivocally, and that, if the signs she gives are deceptive, she should suppress them altogether; that she should say everything or nothing, that I might see which cause I ought to follow. Whereas in my present state, ignorant of what I am or of what I ought to do, I know neither my condition nor my duty. My heart inclines wholly to know where is the true good, in order to follow it; nothing would be too dear to me for eternity.”
― Blaise Pascal, Pensées

“Știința lucrurilor exterioare nu mă poate consola de necunoașterea moralei în vremuri de amărăciune; dar știința moravurilor mă va consola întotdeauna de ignorarea științelor exterioare.”
― Blaise Pascal, Pensées

“What else does this craving, and this helplessness, proclaim but that there was once in man a true happiness, of which all that now remains is the empty print and trace?

This he tries in vain to fill with everything around him, seeking in things that are not there the help he cannot find in those that are, though none can help, since this infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object; in other words by God himself.”
― Blaise Pascal, Pensées

“Can anything be more ridiculous than that a man should have the right to kill me because he lives on the other side of the sea, and because his ruler has a quarrel with mine, though I have none with him.”
― Blaise Pascal, Pensées

“Cea mai puternică sursă de erori este războiul între simțuri și rațiune.”
― Blaise Pascal, Pensées

“Christ prefigured by Joseph. Innocent, beloved of his father, sent by his father to see his brothers, is sold for twenty pieces of silver by his brothers. Through this he becomes their lord, their saviour, saviour of strangers and saviour of the world. None of this would have happened but for their plot to destroy him, the sale and their rejection of him. In prison, Joseph innocent between two criminals. Jesus on the cross between two thieves. He prophesies the salvation of one and the death of the other when to all appearance they are alike. Christ saves the elect and damns the reprobate for the same crime. Joseph only prophesies, Jesus acts. Joseph asks the man who will be saved to remember him when he comes in glory. And the man Jesus saves asks to be remembered when he comes into his kingdom.”
― Blaise Pascal, Pensées

“It is better to know something about everything than to know everything about something.”
― Blaise Pascal, Pensées

“Il faut se connaître soi-même: quand cela ne servirait pas à trouver le vrai, cela au moins sert à régler sa vie, et il n'y a rien de plus juste”
― Blaise Pascal, Pensées

“Il faut qu'on n'en puisse (dire), ni "il est mathématicien", ni "prédicateur", ni "éloquent" mais "il est honnête homme". Cette qualité universelle me plaît seule.”
― Blaise Pascal, Pensées

“Comme on se gâte l'esprit, on se gâte aussi le sentiment.”
― Blaise Pascal, Pensées

“Truth on this side of the Pyrenees, error on the other.”
― Blaise Pascal, Pensées

“La chose la plus importante à toute vie est le choix d’un métier : le hasard en dispose.”
― Blaise Pascal, Pensées

“Who bears witness to Muhammad? Himself. Jesus Christ wants his witness to be nothing. The quality of witnesses means they must always and everywhere be wretched. He is alone.”
― Blaise Pascal, Pensées

“The apostles were either deceived or deceivers. Either supposition is difficult.”
― Blaise Pascal, Pensées

“Jesus Christ came to blind those who saw clearly, and to give sight to the blind; to heal the sick, and leave the healthy to die; to call to repentance, and to justify sinners, and to leave the righteous in their sins; to fill the needy, and leave the rich empty.”
― Blaise Pascal, Pensées

“One says, "It is two hours ago"; the other says, "It is only three-quarters of an hour." I look at my watch, and say to the one, "You are weary," and to the other, "Time gallops with you"; for it is only an hour and a half ago, and I laugh at those who tell me that time goes slowly with me, and that I judge by imagination. They do not know that I judge by my watch.”
― Blaise Pascal, Pensées

“But what is nature? For is custom not natural? I am much afraid that nature is itself only a first custom, as custom is a second nature.”
― Blaise Pascal, Pensées

“It is not from space that I must seek my dignity, but from the government of my
thought. I shall have no more if I possess worlds. By space the universe
encompasses and swallows me up like an atom; by thought I comprehend the world.”
― Blaise Pascal, Pensées

“God alone is man's true good, and since man abandoned him it is a strange fact that nothing in nature has been found to take his place...Since losing his true good, man is capable of seeing it in anything, even his own destruction, although it is so contrary at once to God, to reason, and to nature.”
― Blaise Pascal, Pensées