88 quotes
If a man is endowed with a noble and courageous soul, if he is painstaking, proud, ambitious, without meanness, of a profound a deep-seated intelligence, I dare assert that he lacks nothing to be neglected by the great and men in high office, who fear, more than other men, those whom they cannot dominate.
Reflections and Maxims (1746)
With kings, nations, and private individuals, the strongest assume to themselves rights over the weakest, and the same rule is followed by animals, by matter, by the elements, so that everything is performed in the universe by violence. And that order which we blame with some appearance of justice is the most universal, most absolute, most unchangeable, and most ancient law of nature.
Reflections and Maxims (1746)
You can purchase the mind of Pascal for a crown. Pleasures even cheaper are sold to those who give themselves up to them. It is only luxuries and objects of caprice that are rare and difficult to obtain; unfortunately they are the only things that touch the curiosity and taste of ordinary men.
Reflections and Maxims (1746)
Clearness ornaments profound thoughts.
The generality of men are so bound within the sphere of their circumstances that they have not even the courage to get out of them through their ideas, and if we see a few whom, in a way, speculation over great things makes incapable of mean ones, we find still more with whom the practice of small things takes away the feeling for great ones.
Reflections and Maxims (1746)
If children had teachers for judgment and eloquence as they have for languages, if their memory was exercised less than their energy or their natural genius, if instead of deadening their vivacity of mind we tried to elevate the free scope and impulses of their souls, what might not result from a fine disposition? As it is, we forget that courage, or love of truth and glory are the virtues that matter most in youth; and our one endeavor is to subdue our children’s spirits, in order to teach them that dependence and suppleness are the first laws of success in life.
Reflections and Maxims (1746)
There is nothing that fear or hope does not make men believe.
Attributed A Thousand Flashes of French Wit, Wisdom, and Wickedness (1902)
In order to achieve great things, we must live as though we were never going to die.
Attributed Queers in History (2009)
Virtue is so praiseworthy that wicked people practice it from self-interest.
Attributed A Thousand Flashes of French Wit, Wisdom, and Wickedness (1902)
Servitude debases man to a degree that leads him to love it.
Attributed A Thousand Flashes of French Wit, Wisdom, and Wickedness (1902)
Lazy people are always looking for something to do.
Attributed Queers in History (2009)
Great men undertake great things because they are great, and fools because they think them easy.
Attributed A Thousand Flashes of French Wit, Wisdom, and Wickedness (1902)
No one wishes to be pitied on account of his errors.
Attributed A Thousand Flashes of French Wit, Wisdom, and Wickedness (1902)
We quarrel with unfortunates to be exempted from pitying them.
Attributed A Thousand Flashes of French Wit, Wisdom, and Wickedness (1902)
In order to do great things, we should live as though we were never to die.
Attributed A Thousand Flashes of French Wit, Wisdom, and Wickedness (1902)
Our failings sometimes bind us to one another as closely as could virtue itself.
Attributed Queers in History (2009)
Equality is not a law of nature. Nature has made no two things equal: its sovereign law is subordination and dependence.
Attributed A Thousand Flashes of French Wit, Wisdom, and Wickedness (1902)
We promise much, that we may give little.
Attributed A Thousand Flashes of French Wit, Wisdom, and Wickedness (1902)
The things we know best are the things we haven't been taught.
Attributed Queers in History (2009)
Fools never understand people of wit.
Attributed A Thousand Flashes of French Wit, Wisdom, and Wickedness (1902)