Amusement that is excessive and followed only for its own sake, allures and deceives us. Blaise Pascal More Quotes by Blaise Pascal More Quotes From Blaise Pascal Nothing is so intolerable to man as being fully at rest, without passion, without business, without entertainment, without care. It is then that he recognizes that he is empty, insufficient, dependent, ineffectual. From the depths of his soul now comes at once boredom, gloom, sorrow, chagrin, resentment and despair. Blaise Pascal boredom passion men Silence. All human unhappiness comes from not knowing how to stay quietly in a room. Blaise Pascal silence knowing happiness I feel engulfed in the infinite immensity of spaces whereof I know nothing, and which know nothing of me, I am terrified The eternal silence of these infinite spaces alarms me. Blaise Pascal space silence math I maintain that, if everyone knew what others said about him, there would not be four friends in the world. Blaise Pascal gossip friendship world If there is a God, He is infinitely incomprehensible, since, having, neither parts nor limits, He has no affinity to us. We are then incapable of knowing either what He is or if He is. [So] you must wager. Let us weigh the gain and the loss in wagering that God is. Let us estimate these two chances. If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager then without hesitation that he is. Blaise Pascal atheist knowing loss All men's miseries derive from not being able to sit in a quiet room alone. Blaise Pascal hipster inspirational peace He who cannot believe is cursed, for he reveals by his unbelief that God has not chosen to give him grace. Blaise Pascal grace giving believe Too much pleasure disagrees with us. Too many concords are annoying in music; too many benefits irritate us; we wish to have the wherewithal to overpay our debts. Blaise Pascal debt benefits wish All great amusements are dangerous to the Christian life; but among all those which the world has invented there is none more to be feared than the theater. It is a representation of the passions so natural and so delicate that it excites them and gives birth to them in our hearts, and, above all, to that of love. Blaise Pascal passion christian love Beauty is a harmonious relation between something in our nature and the quality of the object which delights us. Blaise Pascal quality nature beauty To be mistaken in believing that the Christian religion is true is no great loss to anyone; but how dreadful to be mistaken in believing it to be false! Blaise Pascal christian loss believe God has given us evidence sufficiently clear to convince those with an open heart and mind. Blaise Pascal given mind heart St. Augustine teaches us that there is in each man a Serpent, an Eve, and an Adam. Our senses and natural propensities are the Serpent; the excitable desire is the Eve; and reason is the Adam. Our nature tempts us perpetually; criminal desire is often excited; but sin is not completed till reason consents. Blaise Pascal temptation desire men Fear not, provided you fear; but if you fear not, then fear. Blaise Pascal fear-not ifs Il y a deux sortes d'esprits, l'un ge ome trique, et l'autre que l'on peut appeler de finesse. Le premier a des vues lentes, dures et inflexibles; mais le dernier a une souplesse de pense e. There are two kinds of mind, one mathematical, the other what one might call the intuitive. The first takes a slow, firm, inflexible view, but the latter has flexibility of thought. Blaise Pascal views mind two Who can doubt that we exist only to love? Disguise it, in fact, as we will, we love without intermission... We live not a moment exempt from its influence. Blaise Pascal doubt love facts It is the conduct of God, who disposes all things kindly, to put religion into the mind by reason, and into the heart by grace. Blaise Pascal grace mind heart Man lives between the infinitely large and the infinitely small. Blaise Pascal men There is a God shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God, the Creator, made known through Jesus. Blaise Pascal spiritual god jesus The last proceeding of reason is to recognize that there is an infinity of things which are beyond it. There is nothing so conformable to reason as this disavowal of reason. Blaise Pascal lasts infinity reason
