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Quote by Blaise Pascal

“If man were happy, he would be the more so, the less he was diverted, like the saints and God.”

Quote by Blaise Pascal

Work

Pensées is a collection of Pascal's thoughts and reflections on various philosophical, religious, and scientific topics. more

Author

Blaise Pascal was a French mathematician, physicist, philosopher, and theologian. He was born on June 19, 1623, and died on August 19, 1662. Pascal's contributions to mathematics were particularly significant, with groundbreaking work in probability theory, analytical geometry, and early calculus. more

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“There was once in man a true happiness of which there now remain to him only the mark and empty trace, which he in vain tries to fill from all his surroundings, seeking from things absent the help he does not obtain in things present.”

Men Trying Doe Helping Happiness Human Nature Empty Mark Seeking Vain Surroundings Absent True Happiness

Author:Blaise Pascal

“[Christianity] endeavors equally to establish these two things: that God has set up in the Church visible signs to make himself known to those who should seek him sincerely, and that he has nevertheless so disguised them that he will only be perceived by those who seek him with all their heart.”

Should Heart Two Faith Church Known Christianity Two Things Visible Endeavor Nevertheless Sincerely

Author:Blaise Pascal

“Our senses perceive no extreme. Too much sound deafens us; too much light dazzles us; too great distance or proximity hinders ourview. Too great length and too great brevity of discourse tends to obscurity; too much truth is paralyzing.... In short, extremes are for us as though they were not, and we are not within their notice. They escape us, or we them.”

Light Truth Sound Too Much Truth Is Distance Extremes Senses Perceive Length Discourse Moderation Obscurity Hinder Brevity Proximity Dazzle

Author:Blaise Pascal

“Vanity is so anchored in the heart of man that a soldier, a soldier's servant, a cook, a porter brags and wishes to have his admirers. Even philosophers wish for them. Those who write against vanity want to have the glory of having written well; and those who read it desire the glory of having read it. I who write this have perhaps this desire, and perhaps those who will read it.”

Men Want Writing Wells Heart Desire Wish Written Glory Philosophical Soldier Philosopher Vanity Cooks Servant Admiration Brag Admirer

Book:Pensées

Source: Pensées

“Those great efforts of intellect, upon which the mind sometimes touches, are such that it cannot maintain itself there. It only leaps to them, not as upon a throne, forever, but merely for an instant.”

Mind Sometimes Effort Forever Intelligence Intellect Instant Leap Thrones Great Effort

Author:Blaise Pascal

“It is not in Montaigne, but in myself, that I find all that I see in him.”

Reading Literature

Book:Thoughts

Source: Thoughts

“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.”

World Firsts Body Born Existence Knowledge Position Sight Infinite Intellect Infinity Compass Expanse

Book:Thoughts

Source: Thoughts

“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.”

Ifs Thinking Ends Past Knowledge Driven Uncertainty Spheres Slips Sail Drifting Elude Inconstancy

Book:Pensees

Source: Pensees

“The great mass of people judge well of things, for they are in natural ignorance, which is man's true state.”

People Men Wells States Natural Knowledge Ignorance Judging Mass

Author:Blaise Pascal

“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.”

Knows Men Mind Firsts Two Running Natural Knowledge Ignorance Birth Pure Conscious Extremes Self Knowledge Back Again Great Minds Two Extremes

Author:Blaise Pascal