Blaise Pascal Quotes

God wishes to move the will rather than the mind. Perfect clarity would help the mind and harm the will.

إن احتقار النفس يولد أكثر النزعات اجراما : لأنه يجعل الشخص ينطوي على كراهية قاتلة للحقيقة التي تدينه هو وتظهر عيوبه

Each man is everything to himself, for with his death everything is dead for him. That is why each of us thinks he is everything to everyone. We must not judge nature by ourselves, but by its own standards.

Those who have known God without knowing their own wretchedness have not glorified him but themselves.

The sole cause of man’s unhappiness is that he does not know how to stay quietly in his room.

It is dangerous to explain too clearly to man how like he is to the animals without pointing out his greatness. It is also dangerous to make too much of his greatness without his vileness. It is still more dangerous to leave him in ignorance of both, but it is most valuable to represent both to him.
Man must not be allowed to believe that he is equal either to animals or to angels, nor to be unaware of either, but he must know both.

Cleopatra's nose, had it been shorter, the whole face of the world would have been changed.

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

We run heedlessly into the abyss after putting something in front of us to stop us seeing it.

We know the truth, not only be the reason, but also be the heart.

Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature; but he is a thinking reed.

Vanity is so firmly anchored in man's heart that a soldier, a camp follower, a cook or a porter will boast and expect admirers, and even philosophers want them; those who write against them want to enjoy the prestige of having written well, those who read them want the prestige of having read them, and perhaps I who write this want the same thing.

We are fools to depend upon the society of our fellow-men. Wretched as we are, powerless as we are, they will not aid us; we shall die alone. We should therefore act as if we were alone, and in that case should we build fine houses, etc.? We should seek the truth without hesitation; and, if we refuse it, we show that we value the esteem of men more than the search for truth.

Man's greatness comes from knowing that he is wretched: a tree does not know it is wretched. Thus it is wretched to know that one is wretched, but there is greatness in knowing one is wretched.

At the far end of this infinite distance a coin is being spun which will come down heads or tails. How will you wager? Reason cannot make you choose either, reason cannot prove either wrong.