Blaise Pascal ( 10 of 74 )
It is the fight alone that pleases us, not the victory.
It is the fight alone that pleases us, not the victory.
It is in vain, 0 men, that you seek within yourselves the cure for your miseries. All your insight only read more
It is in vain, 0 men, that you seek within yourselves the cure for your miseries. All your insight only leads you to the knowledge that it is not in yourselves that you will discover the true and the good. The philosophers promised them to you, and have not been able to keep their promises... Your principal maladies are pride, which cuts you off from God, and sensuality, which binds you to the earth; and they have done nothing but foster at least one of these maladies. If they have given you God for your object, it has only been to pander to your pride; they have made you think that you were like Him and resembled Him by your nature. And those who have grasped the vanity of such a pretension have cast you down into the other abyss by making you believe that your nature was like that of the beasts of the field, and have led you to seek your good in lust, which is the lot of animals.
What use is it to us to hear it said of a man that he has thrown off the yoke, read more
What use is it to us to hear it said of a man that he has thrown off the yoke, that he does not believe there is a God to watch over his actions, that he reckons himself the sole master of his behavior, and that he does not intend to give an account of it to anyone but himself? Does he think that in that way he will have straightway persuaded us to have complete confidence in him, to look to him for consolation, for advice, and for help, in the vicissitudes of life? Do such men think that they have delighted us by telling us that they hold our souls to be nothing but a little wind and smoke -- and by saying it in conceited and complacent tones? Is that a thing to say blithely? Is it not rather a thing to say sadly -- as if it were the saddest thing in the world?
Men never do evil so fully and so happily as when they do it for conscience's sake.
Men never do evil so fully and so happily as when they do it for conscience's sake.
Commemoration of Anne & Joachim, parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary God is none other than the Saviour of read more
Commemoration of Anne & Joachim, parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary God is none other than the Saviour of our wretchedness. So we can only know God well by knowing our iniquities... Those who have known God without knowing their wretchedness have not glorified him, but have glorified themselves.
Vanity is so secure in the heart of man that everyone wants to be admired: even I who write this, read more
Vanity is so secure in the heart of man that everyone wants to be admired: even I who write this, and you who read this.
The knowledge of God is very far from the love of Him.
The knowledge of God is very far from the love of Him.
He who does not know his way to the sea should take a river for
his guide.
[Fr., read more
He who does not know his way to the sea should take a river for
his guide.
[Fr., Les rivieres sont des chemins qui marchant et qui portent
ou l'on veut aller.]
The stream is always purer at its source.
[Fr., Les choses valent toujours mieux dans leur source.]
The stream is always purer at its source.
[Fr., Les choses valent toujours mieux dans leur source.]
To go beyond the bounds of moderation is to outrage humanity.
To go beyond the bounds of moderation is to outrage humanity.
