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Blaise Pascal

72 quotes

Blaise Pascal (1623–1662) was a French mathematician, physicist, inventor, and philosopher. A child prodigy in mathematics, he made foundational contributions to probability theory and invented an early mechanical calculator. His *Pensées*, a collection of fragments on theology and philosophy, remains one of the masterpieces of French prose.

“Thus so wretched is man that he would weary even without any cause for weariness... and so frivolous is he that, though full of a thousand reasons for weariness, the least thing, such as playing billiards or hitting a ball, is sufficient enough to amuse him.”

— Blaise Pascal

Sports

All Quotes by Blaise Pascal

“Justice and truth are too such subtle points that our tools are too blunt to touch them accurately.”

— Blaise Pascal

Truth

“Nothing gives rest but the sincere search for truth.”

— Blaise Pascal

Truth

“Habit is a second nature that destroys the first. But what is nature? Why is habit not natural? I am very much afraid that nature itself is only a first habit, just as habit is a second nature.”

— Blaise Pascal

Nature

“Nature is an infinite sphere of which the center is everywhere and the circumference nowhere.”

— Blaise Pascal

Nature

“It is not good to be too free. It is not good to have everything one wants.”

— Blaise Pascal

Good

“I have made this letter longer than usual, only because I have not had the time to make it shorter.”

— Blaise Pascal

Time

“The greater intellect one has, the more originality one finds in men. Ordinary persons find no difference between men.”

— Blaise Pascal

Men

“All men's miseries derive from not being able to sit in a quiet room alone.”

— Blaise Pascal

Alone

“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.”

— Blaise Pascal

Faith

“As men are not able to fight against death, misery, ignorance, they have taken it into their heads, in order to be happy, not to think of them at all.”

— Blaise Pascal

Death

“Thus so wretched is man that he would weary even without any cause for weariness... and so frivolous is he that, though full of a thousand reasons for weariness, the least thing, such as playing billiards or hitting a ball, is sufficient enough to amuse him.”

— Blaise Pascal

Sports

“There is a God shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God, the Creator, made known through Jesus.”

— Blaise Pascal

God

“Happiness is neither without us nor within us. It is in God, both without us and within us.”

— Blaise Pascal

God

“Nothing is so intolerable to man as being fully at rest, without a passion, without business, without entertainment, without care.”

— Blaise Pascal

Business

“Man's true nature being lost, everything becomes his nature as, his true good being lost, everything becomes his good.”

— Blaise Pascal

Nature

“Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.”

— Blaise Pascal

Men

“Contradiction is not a sign of falsity, nor the lack of contradiction a sign of truth.”

— Blaise Pascal

Truth

“If all men knew what others say of them, there would not be four friends in the world.”

— Blaise Pascal

Men

“Man's greatness lies in his power of thought.”

— Blaise Pascal

Power

“The struggle alone pleases us, not the victory.”

— Blaise Pascal

Alone