We never do evil so effectually as when we are led to do it by a false principle of conscience. Blaise Pascal More Quotes by Blaise Pascal More Quotes From Blaise Pascal When a natural discourse paints a passion or an effect, one feels within oneself the truth of what one reads, which was there before, although one did not know it. Hence one is inclined to love him who makes us feel it, for he has not shown us his own riches, but ours. ...such community of intellect that we have with him necessarily inclines the heart to love. Blaise Pascal passionheartlife What matters it that man should have a little more knowledge of the universe? If he has it, he gets little higher. Is he not always infinitely removed from the end, and is not the duration of our life equally removed from eternity, even if it lasts ten years longer? Blaise Pascal what-mattersmenknowledge Since [man] is infinitely removed from comprehending the extremes, the end of things and their beginning are hopelessly hidden from him in an impenetrable secret; he is equally incapable of seeing the nothing from which he was made, and the infinite in which he is swallowed up. Blaise Pascal secretmenknowledge Knowledge has two extremes. The first is the pure natural ignorance in which all men find themselves at birth. The other extreme is that reached by great minds, who, having run through all that men can know, find they know nothing, and come back again to that same natural ignorance from which they set out; this is a learned ignorance which is conscious of itself. Blaise Pascal ignorancerunningknowledge The great mass of people judge well of things, for they are in natural ignorance, which is man's true state. Blaise Pascal ignorancemenknowledge We sail within a vast sphere, ever drifting in uncertainty, driven from end to end. When we think to attach ourselves to any pointand to fasten to it, it wavers and leaves us; and if we follow it, it eludes our grasp, slips past us, and vanishes for ever. Nothing stays for us. Blaise Pascal pastknowledgethinking If we dreamed the same thing every night, it would affect us much as the objects we see every day. And if a common workman were sure to dream every night for twelve hours that he was a king, I believe he would be almost as happy as a king who should dream every night for twelve hours on end that he was a common workman. Blaise Pascal kingsdreambelieve Let us, then, take our compass; we are something, and we are not everything. The nature of our existence hides from us the knowledge of first beginnings which are born of the nothing; and the littleness of our being conceals from us the sight of the infinite. Our intellect holds the same position in the world of thought as our body occupies in the expanse of nature. Blaise Pascal sightworldknowledge It is not in Montaigne, but in myself, that I find all that I see in him. Blaise Pascal readingliterature The world is satisfied with words, few care to dive beneath the surface. Blaise Pascal beneath-the-surfacecareworld Nature has some perfections to show that she is the image of God, and some defects to show that she is only His image. Blaise Pascal natureperfectionorder All our troubles come from not being able to be alone. Blaise Pascal modern-lifeabletrouble Wisdom leads us back to childhood. Blaise Pascal childhood A little thing comforts us because a little thing afflicts us. Blaise Pascal little-thingscomfortlittles The world is satisfied with words. Few appreciate the things beneath. Blaise Pascal paroleappreciateworld Civil wars are the greatest of evils. They are inevitable, if we wish to reward merit, for all will say that they are meritorious. Blaise Pascal evilwishwar Voluptuousness, like justice, is blind, but that is the only resemblance between them. Blaise Pascal resemblanceblindjustice Most of the evils of life arise from man's being unable to sit still in a room. Blaise Pascal evilmenrooms It is the contest that delights us, and not the victory. Blaise Pascal contestsdelightvictory There are vices which have no hold upon us, but in connection with others; and which, when you cut down the trunk, fall like the branches. Blaise Pascal cuttingvicesfall
