Collected Meditations
Showing 129 quotesThe consciousness of the falsity of present pleasures, and the ignorance of the vanity of absent pleasures, cause inconstancy.— Blaise Pascal
The greater intellect one has, the more originality one finds in men. Ordinary persons find no difference between men.— Blaise Pascal
Justice and truth are too such subtle points that our tools are too blunt to touch them accurately.— Blaise Pascal
It is not good to be too free. It is not good to have everything one wants.— Blaise Pascal
topics:
Good
Even those who write against fame wish for the fame of having written well, and those who read their works desire the fame of having read them.— Blaise Pascal
We like security: we like the pope to be infallible in matters of faith, and grave doctors to be so in moral questions so that we can feel reassured.— Blaise Pascal
The sensitivity of men to small matters, and their indifference to great ones, indicates a strange inversion.— Blaise Pascal
As men are not able to fight against death, misery, ignorance, they have taken it into their heads, in order to be happy, not to think of them at all.— Blaise Pascal
Reason commands us far more imperiously than a master; for in disobeying the one we are unfortunate, and in disobeying the other we are fools.— Blaise Pascal
Faith certainly tells us what the senses do not, but not the contrary of what they see; it is above, not against them.— Blaise Pascal
topics:
Faith
If we must not act save on a certainty, we ought not to act on religion, for it is not certain. But how many things we do on an uncertainty, sea voyages, battles!— Blaise Pascal
topics:
Religion
Chance gives rise to thoughts, and chance removes them; no art can keep or acquire them.— Blaise Pascal
Men often take their imagination for their heart; and they believe they are converted as soon as they think of being converted.— Blaise Pascal
topics:
Imagination
When we see a natural style, we are astonished and charmed; for we expected to see an author, and we find a person.— Blaise Pascal
Concupiscence and force are the source of all our actions; concupiscence causes voluntary actions, force involuntary ones.— Blaise Pascal