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Quote by 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.”

Quote by Blaise Pascal

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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“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.”

Men Made Ends Secret Knowledge Seeing Infinite Extremes Infinity Incapable Comprehending

Book:Pascal's Pensees

Source: Pascal's Pensees

“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?”

Ifs Men Should Years Littles Ends Matter Lasts Universe Knowledge Our Lives Higher Ten Should Have Eternity Infinity What Matters Duration More Knowledge

Book:Thoughts, Letters & Minor Works

Source: Thoughts, Letters & Minor Works

“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.”

Ifs Should Believe Ends Dream Reality Would Be Night I Believe Hours Common Objects Kings Twelve Every Night Realism Workmen

Author:Blaise Pascal

“Let us imagine a number of men in chains and all condemned to death, where some are killed each day in the sight of the others, and those who remain see their own fate in that of their fellows and wait their turn, looking at each other sorrowfully and without hope. It is an image of the condition of man.”

Men Death Turns Waiting Numbers Fate Imagine Conditions Sight Fellows Chains Each Day Without Hope

Book:Pascal's Pensees

Source: Pascal's Pensees

“We need not have the loftiest mind to understand that here is no lasting and real satisfaction, that our pleasures are only vanity, that our evils are infinite, and, lastly, that death, which threatens us every moment, must infallibly place us within a few years under the dreadful necessity of being forever either annihilated or unhappy.”

Needs Years Mind Real Moments Death Evil Pleasure Forever Infinite Satisfaction Unhappy Vanity Lasting

Author:Blaise Pascal

“Without [diversion] we would be in a state of weariness, and this weariness would spur us on to seek a more solid means of escaping from it. But diversion amuses us, and leads us unconsciously to death.”

Mean States Would Be Death Sadness Escaping Spurs Weariness Diversion

Book:Pascal's Pensées

Source: Pascal's Pensées

“When the British came to Ibo land, for instance, at the beginning of the 20th century, and defeated the men in pitched battles in different places, and set up their administrations, the men surrendered. And it was the women who led the first revolt.”

Men Firsts Different Land Century Battle British Instance Administration Defeated 20th Century Revolt Different Place

Author:Chinua Achebe

“Nothing is so important to man as his own state; nothing is so formidable to him as eternity. And thus it is unnatural that thereshould be men indifferent to the loss of their existence and to the perils of everlasting suffering.”

Men Important States Death Suffering Loss Existence Hell Eternity Indifference Indifferent Everlasting Peril Be A Man Unnatural Formidable

Book:Pascal's Pensees

Source: Pascal's Pensees

“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.”

World Love Giving Heart Christian Passion Natural Dangerous Birth Theater Christian Life Delicate Representation Amusement

Book:Pascal's Pensées: Selections

Source: Pascal's Pensées: Selections

“We do not rest satisfied with the present.... So imprudent we are that we wander in the times which are not ours and do not thinkof the only one which belongs to us; and so idle are we that we dream of those times which are no more and thoughtlessly overlook that which alone exists. For the present is generally painful to us.”

Dream Hope Painful Satisfied Wander Idle

Book:Thoughts, Letters & Minor Works

Source: Thoughts, Letters & Minor Works