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Quotes from Pensées — Blaise Pascal

1623–1662 France

← All quotes by Blaise Pascal

16 quotes

Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it conscientiously.

Pensées (1669)

Force and not opinion is the queen of the world; but it is opinion that uses the force.

Pensées (1669)

Our reason is always disappointed by the inconsistency of appearances.

Pensées (1669)

Atheism shows strength of mind, but only to a certain degree.

Pensées (1669)

The state of man is inconstancy, ennui, anxiety.

Pensées (1669)

Faith is different from proof; the latter is human, the former is a Gift from God.

Pensées (1669)

Noble deeds that are concealed are most esteemed.

Pensées (1669)

To ridicule philosophy is truly philosophical.

Pensées (1669)

In faith there is enough light for those who want to believe and enough shadows to blind those who don't.

Pensées (1669)

Now, if the passions had no hold on us, a week and a hundred years would amount to the same.

Pensées (1669)

How vain painting is, exciting admiration by its resemblance to things of which we do not admire the originals.

Pensées (1669)

Do you wish people to speak well of you? Then do not speak at all yourself.

Pensées (1669)

It is the heart which perceives God and not the reason. That is what faith is: God perceived by the heart, not by the reason.

Pensées (1669)

Compare not thyself with others, but with Me. If thou dost not find Me in those with whom thou comparest thyself, thou comparest thyself to one who is abominable.

Pensées (1669)

Belief is a wise wager. Granted that faith cannot be proved, what harm will come to you if you gamble on its truth and it proves false? If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager, then, without hesitation, that He exists.

Pensées (1669)

Do they profess to have delighted us by telling us that they hold our soul to be only a little wind and smoke, especially by telling us this in a haughty and self-satisfied tone of voice? Is this a thing to say gaily? Is it not, on the contrary, a thing to say sadly, as the saddest thing in the world?

Pensées (1669)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Blaise Pascal (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.