Skip to content

Psychology Quotes by Blaise Pascal

44 Psychology quotes by Blaise Pascal

All Psychology quotes Blaise Pascal’s page

Pascal’s thoughts on the mind stress that belief often fills the gaps when we lack true objects. He draws a line between the logical mind and the feeling heart, warning that forced, artificial thinking breeds foolish pride. He also notes that people trust reasons they discover themselves more than those handed down.

Rate this collection: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet

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

Image

God has given us evidence sufficiently clear to convince those with an open heart and mind.

Image

Small minds are concerned with the extraordinary, great minds with the ordinary.

Image

Flies are so mighty that they win battles, paralyse our minds, eat up our bodies.

Image

Clarity of mind means clarity of passion, too.

Image

The heart has arguments with which the logic of mind is not aquainted.

Image

Dull minds are never either intuitive or mathematical.

Image

“The infinite distance between the mind & the body is a symbol of the distance that is infinitely more, between the intellect…

Image

There are some who speak well and write badly. For the place and the audience warm them, and draw from their minds…

Image

People are generally better persuaded by the reasons which they have themselves discovered than by those which have come in to the…

Image

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

Image

Reason's last step is the recognition that there are an infinite number of things which are beyond it

Image

It is the conduct of God, who disposes all things kindly, to put religion into the mind by reason, and into the…

Image

“Truth is not an object to be possessed; it is a living thing recognized, cultivated by the mind and heart.”

Image

God only pours out his light into the mind after having subdued the rebellion of the will by an altogether heavenly gentleness…

Image

Mathematicians, who are only mathematicians, have exact minds, provided all things are explained to them by means of definitions and axioms; otherwise…

Image

“ Two contrary reasons . We must begin with that, otherwise we cannot understand anything and everything is heretical. And even at…

Image

If we let ourselves believe that man began with divine grace, that he forfeited this by sin, and that he can be…

Image

Knowledge has two extremes. The first is the pure natural ignorance in which all men find themselves at birth. The other extreme…

Image

There are two types of mind . . . the mathematical, and what might be called the intuitive. The former arrives at…

Image

Man is to himself the most wonderful object in nature; for he cannot conceive what the body is, still less what the…

Image

There are two types of minds, the mathematical, and what might be called the intuitive. The former arrives at its views slowly,…

Image

We need not have the loftiest mind to understand that here is no lasting and real satisfaction, that our pleasures are only…

Image

The mind of the greatest man on earth is not so independent of circumstances as not to feel inconvenienced by the merest…

Image

Just as I do not know where I came from, so I do not know where I am going. All I know…

Image

The will is one of the chief factors in belief, not that it creates belief, but because things are true or false…

Image

When we do not know the truth of a thing, it is good that there should exist a common error which determines…

Image

Il y a deux sortes d'esprits, l'un ge ome trique, et l'autre que l'on peut appeler de finesse. Le premier a des…

Image

“The infinite distance between body and mind symbolizes the infinitely more infinite distance between mind and charity, for charity is supernatural. ...Out…

Image

There are three means of believing--by inspiration, by reason, and by custom. Christianity, which is the only rational institution, does yet admit…

Image

The mind naturally makes progress, and the will naturally clings to objects; so that for want of right objects, it will attach…

Image

We do not content ourselves with the life we have in ourselves; we desire to live an imaginary life in the minds…

Image

“Jesus Christ and St Paul possess the order of charity, not of the mind, for they wished to humble, not to teach.”

Image

The mind has its arrangement; it proceeds from principles to demonstrations. The heart has a different mode of proceeding.

Image

“It is natural for the mind to believe, and for the will to love; [47] so that, for want of true objects,…

Image

“God wishes to move the will rather than the mind. Perfect clarity would help the mind and harm the will.”

Image

“People are generally better persuaded by the reasons which they have themselves discovered than by those which have come into the mind…

Image

“If our state were really happy, we should not need to take our minds off it in order to make ourselves happy.”

Image

Clarity of mind means clarity of passion, too; this is why a great and clear mind loves ardently and sees distinctly what…

Image

From whence comes it that a cripple in body does not irritate us, and that a crippled mind enrages us? It is…

Image

Other authors on Psychology

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…