Quotes from Blaise Pascal

Curiosity is only vanity. Most frequently we wish not to know, but to talk. We would not take a sea voyage for the sole pleasure of seeing without hope of ever telling.

The power of a man's virtue should not be measured by his special efforts, but by his ordinary doing

To deny, to believe, and to doubt absolutely -- this is for man what running is for a horse.

Time heals griefs and quarrels, for we change and are no longer the same persons.

In faith there is enough light for those who want to believe and enough shadows to blind those who don't.

Faith indeed tells what the senses do not tell, but not the contrary of what they see. It is above them and not contrary to them.

No soul of high estate can take pleasure in slander. It betrays a weakness.

The more intelligent one is, the more men of originality one finds. Ordinary people find no difference between men.

The multitude which does not reduce itself to unity is confusion.

Jesus is the God whom we can approach without pride and before whom we can humble ourselves without despair.

Those who do not hate their own selfishness and regard themselves as more important than the rest of the world are blind because the truth lies elsewhere

The sum of a man's problems come from his inability to be alone in a silent room.

Some vices only lay hold of us by means of others, and these, like branches, fall on removal of the trunk.

Words differently arranged have a different meaning and meanings differently arranged have a different effect.

There are some who speak well and write badly. For the place and the audience warm them, and draw from their minds more than they think of without that warmth.

People are usually more convinced by reasons they discovered themselves than by those found by others.

"Through space the universe encompasses and swallows me up like an atom; through thought I comprehend the world."

We conceal it from ourselves in vain - we must always love something. In those matters seemingly removed from love, the feeling is secretly to be found, and man cannot possibly live for a moment without it.

Concupiscence and force are the source of all our actions; concupiscence causes voluntary actions, force involuntary ones.

Desire and force between them are responsible for all our actions; desire causes our voluntary acts, force our involuntary.

Nothing is as approved as mediocrity, the majority has established it and it fixes it fangs on whatever gets beyond it either way.

What a chimera then is man! What a novelty! What a monster, what a chaos, what a contradiction, what a prodigy! Judge of all things, feeble earthworm, depository of truth, a sink of uncertainty and error, the glory and the shame of the universe.

To go beyond the bounds of moderation is to outrage humanity.

To find recreation in amusement is not happiness.