Blaise Pascal

Quotes

1. Translation: If [Man] exalt himself, I humble him, if he humble himself, I exalt him; and [I] always contradict him, until he understands that he is an incomprehensible monster.

2. 

   True morality makes fun of morality.

3. 

   Yes; but you must wager. It is not optional. You are embarked. Which will you choose then? Let us see. Since you must choose, let us see which interests you least. You have two things to lose, the true and the good; and two things to stake, your reason and your will, your knowledge and your happiness; and your nature has two things to shun, error and misery. Your reason is no more shocked in choosing one rather than the other, since you must of necessity choose. This is one point settled. But your happiness? Let us weigh the gain and the loss in wagering that God is. Let us estimate these two chances. If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager, then, without hesitation that He is.

   p. 48

4. 

   Our nature consists in motion; complete rest is death.

5. 

   How many kingdoms know us not!

6. 

   Translation: Animals do not admire one another. A horse does not admire his companion.

7. 

   Cleopatra's nose: had it been shorter, the whole aspect of the world would have been altered.

8. 

   Between us and heaven or hell there is only life, which is the frailest thing in the world.

9. 

   To make light of philosophy is to be a true philosopher.

10. 

    Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature; but he is a thinking reed. The entire universe need not arm itself to crush him. A vapour, a drop of water suffices to kill him. But, if the universe were to crush him, man would still be more noble than that which killed him, because he knows that he dies and the advantage which the universe has over him; the universe knows nothing of this. All our dignity consists, then, in thought. By it we must elevate ourselves, and not by space and time which we cannot fill. Let us endeavour, then, to think well; this is the principle of morality.

11. 

    If one of two persons, who are telling silly stories, uses language with a double meaning, understood in his own circle, while the other uses it with only one meaning, any one not in the secret, who hears them both talk in this manner, will pass upon them the same judgment. But if afterwords, in the rest of their conversation one says angelic things, and the other always dull commonplaces, he will judge that the one spoke in mysteries, and not the other; the one having sufficiently shown that he is incapable of such foolishness, and capable of being mysterious; and the other that he is incapable of mystery, and capable of foolishness. The Old Testament is a cipher.

12. 

    We want truth and find only uncertainty in ourselves.

    We seek happiness and find only wretchedness and death.

    We are incapable of not wanting truth and happiness and are incapable of certainty or happiness.