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Men Quotes by Blaise Pascal

166 Men quotes by Blaise Pascal

All Men quotes Blaise Pascal’s page

Pascal calls imagination a trick that leads to error, while true thought gives man his dignity and moral guide. He says greatness comes from balancing extremes, not from staying at one end. He also notes that instinct and experience shape human nature, and that each person carries both a serpent of desire and a hopeful side.

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The state of man is inconstancy, ennui, anxiety.

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Kind words produce their images on men's souls.

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There is a God-shaped hole in the life of every man.

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Man's grandeur is that he knows himself to be miserable.

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Men blaspheme what they do not know.

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How hollow is the heart of man, and how full of excrement!

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Man is neither angel nor beast.

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Man governs himself more by impulse than reason

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

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It is not shameful for a man to succumb to pain and it is shameful to succumb to pleasure.

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The great mass of people judge well of things, for they are in natural ignorance, which is man's true state.

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What a chimera then is man. What a novelty! What a monster... what a contradiction, what a prodigy

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Is it courage in a dying man to go, in weakness and in agony, to affront an almighty and eternal God?

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Man's sensitivity to the little things and insensitivity to the greatest are the signs of a strange disorder.

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Those who are clever in imagination are far more pleased with themselves than prudent men could reasonably be.

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Description of man: dependence, longing for independence, need.

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All men naturally hate each other. We have used concupiscence as best we can to make it serve the common good, but…

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Man's greatness is great in that he knows himself wretched. A tree does not know itself wretched. It is then being wretched…

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For as old age is that period of life most remote from infancy, who does not see that old age in this…

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L'homme n'est ni ange ni be" te, et le malheur veut que qui veut faire l'ange fait la be" te. Man is…

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Kind words do not cost much. They never blister the tongue or lips. They make other people good-natured. They also produce their…

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There is nothing that we can see on earth which does not either show the wretchedness of man or the mercy of…

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Fashion is a tyrant from which nothing frees us. We must suit ourselves to its fantastic tastes. But being compelled to live…

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In proportion as our own mind is enlarged we discover a greater number of men of originality. Commonplace people see no difference…

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[Unbelievers] think they have made great efforts to get at the truth when they have spent a few hours in reading some…

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All men are almost led to believe not of proof, but by attraction. This way is base, ignoble, and irrelevant; every one…

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Man is so great that his greatness appears even in the consciousness of his misery. A tree does not know itself to…

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Man is nothing but insincerity, falsehood, and hypocrisy, both in regard to himself and in regard to others. He does not wish…

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To speak freely of mathematics, I find it the highest exercise of the spirit; but at the same time I know that…

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It is dangerous to explain too clearly to man how like he is to the animals without pointing out his greatness. It…

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When I have occasionally set myself to consider the different distractions of men, the pains and perils to which they expose themselves…

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“One has followed the other in an endless circle, for it is certain that as man's insight increases so he finds both…

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All who say the same things do not possess them in the same manner; and hence the incomparable author of the Art…

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I have spent much time in the study of the abstract sciences; but the paucity of persons with whom you can communicate…

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When I see the blind and wretched state of men, when I survey the whole universe in its deadness, and man left…

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“Nobody is publicly accepted as an expert on poetry unless he displays the sign of poet, mathematician, etc., but universal men want…

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If men knew themselves, God would heal and pardon them.

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(Man,) the glory and the scandal of the universe.

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Two things control men's nature, instinct and experience.

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Most of man's trouble comes from his inability to be still.

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More by Blaise Pascal

“Do they think that they have given us great pleasure by telling us that they hold our soul to be no more than wind…

There should be in eloquence that which is pleasing and that which is real; but that which is pleasing should itself be real.

The method of not erring is sought by all the world. The logicians profess to guide it, the geometricians alone attain it, and apart…

When we read too fast or too slowly, we understand nothing.

Mahomet established a religion by putting his enemies to death; Jesus Christ by commanding his followers to lay down their lives

Reflect on death as in Jesus Christ, not as without Jesus Christ. Without Jesus Christ it is dreadful, it is alarming, it is the…

The Stoics say, "Retire within yourselves; it is there you will find your rest." And that is not true. Others say, "Go out of…

Happiness can be found neither in ourselves nor in external things, but in God and in ourselves as united to him.

Amusement that is excessive and followed only for its own sake, allures and deceives us.

Rivers are highways that move on and bear us whither we wish to go.

We desire truth, and find within ourselves only uncertainty. We seek happiness, and find only misery and death. We cannot but desire truth and…

Vanity is illustrated in the cause and effect of love, as in the case of Cleopatra.

“There is no denying it; one must admit that there is something astonishing about Christianity. 'It is because you were born in it,' they…

Imagination is the deceptive part in man, the mistress of error and falsehood.

The majority is the best way, because it is visible, and has strength to make itself obeyed. Yet it is the opinion of the…