Imagination is the deceptive part in man, the mistress of error and falsehood. Blaise Pascal More Quotes by Blaise Pascal More Quotes From Blaise Pascal There is nothing so insupportable to man as to be in entire repose, without passion, occupation, amusement, or application. Then it is that he feels his own nothingness, isolation, insignificance, dependent nature, powerless, emptiness. Immediately there issue from his soul ennui, sadness, chagrin, vexation, despair. Blaise Pascal passionsadnessmen Extremes are for us as if they were not, and as if we were not in regard to them; they escape from us, or we from them. Blaise Pascal extremesregardifs From whence comes it that a cripple in body does not irritate us, and that a crippled mind enrages us? It is because a cripple sees that we go right, and a distorted mind says that it is we who go astray. But for that we should have more pity and less rage. Blaise Pascal should-haveminddoe It is a dangerous experiment to call in gratitude as an ally to love. Love is a debt which inclination always pays, obligation never. Blaise Pascal alliesgratitudelove-is I take it as a matter not to be disputed, that if all knew what each said of the other, there would not be four friends in the world. This seems proved by the quarrels and disputes caused by the disclosures which are occasionally made. Blaise Pascal gossipfourworld The sweetness of glory is so great that, join it to what we will, even to death, we love it. Blaise Pascal sweetnessglory The present is never the mark of our designs. We use both past and present as our means and instruments, but the future only as our object and aim. Blaise Pascal futuremeanpast How hollow is the heart of man, and how full of excrement! Blaise Pascal hollowheartmen There are three means of believing--by inspiration, by reason, and by custom. Christianity, which is the only rational institution, does yet admit none for its sons who do not believe by inspiration. Nor does it injure reason or custom, or debar them of their proper force; on the contrary, it directs us to open our minds by the proofs of the former, and to confirm our minds by the authority of the latter. Blaise Pascal inspirationfaithbelieve We feel neither extreme heat nor extreme cold; qualities that are in excess are so much at variance with our feelings that they are impalpable: we do not feel them, though we suffer from their effects. Blaise Pascal qualitysufferingfeelings Imagination cannot make fools wise, but it makes them happy, as against reason, which only makes its friends wretched: one covers them with glory, the other with shame. Blaise Pascal foolimaginationwise We never do evil so effectually as when we are led to do it by a false principle of conscience. Blaise Pascal conscienceprinciplesevil If we regulate our conduct according to our own convictions, we may safely disregard the praise or censure of others. Blaise Pascal convictionpraisemay Continuity in everything is unpleasant. Blaise Pascal continuitychange All the dignity of man consists in thought. Thought is therefore by its nature a wonderful and incomparable thing. It must have strange defects to be contemptible. But it has such, so that nothing is more ridiculous. How great it is in its nature! How vile it is in its defects! But what is this thought? How foolish it is! Blaise Pascal ridiculousstrangemen All that tends not to charity is figurative. The sole aim of the Scripture is charity. Blaise Pascal solescripturecharity All is one, all is different. How many natures exist in man? How many vocations? And by what chance does each man ordinarily choose what he has heard praised? Blaise Pascal differentdoemen Admiration spoils all from infancy. Blaise Pascal spoilinfancyadmiration According to the doctrine of chance, you ought to put yourself to the trouble of searching for the truth; for if you die without worshiping the True Cause, you are lost. "But," say you, "if He had wished me to worship Him, He would have left me signs of His will." He has done so; but you neglect them. Seek them, therefore; it is well worth it. Blaise Pascal doctrinecausesdone Man governs himself more by impulse than reason Blaise Pascal impulsereasonmen
