Quotes by Blaise Pascal

About Blaise Pascal:

Blaise Pascal was a French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer and Christian philosopher. He was a child prodigy who was educated by his father, a tax collector in Rouen. Pascal's earliest work was in the natural and applied sciences where he made important contributions to the study of fluids, and clarified the concepts of pressure and vacuum by generalizing the work of Evangelista Torricelli. Pascal also wrote in defense of the scientific method.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Desire and force between them are responsible for all our actions; desire causes our voluntary acts, force our involuntary.

Blaise Pascal

Even those who write against fame wish for the fame of having written well, and those who read their works desire the fame of having read them.

Blaise Pascal

Law, without force, is impotent.

Blaise Pascal

When we see a natural style, we are astonished and charmed; for we expected to see an author, and we find a person.

Blaise Pascal

Through space the universe encompasses and swallows me up like an atom; through thought I comprehend the world.

Blaise Pascal

Evil is easy, and has infinite forms.

Blaise Pascal

People are generally better persuaded by the reasons which they have themselves discovered than by those which have come in to the mind of others.

Blaise Pascal

The last act is bloody, however pleasant all the rest of the play is: a little earth is thrown at last upon our head, and that is the end forever.

Blaise Pascal

Earnestness is enthusiasm tempered by reason.

Blaise Pascal

We only consult the ear because the heart is wanting.

Blaise Pascal

We run carelessly to the precipice, after we have put something before us to prevent us seeing it.

Blaise Pascal

A trifle consoles us, for a trifle distresses us.

Blaise Pascal

Nothing fortifies scepticism more than the fact that there are some who are not sceptics; if all were so, they would be wrong.

Blaise Pascal

Reason commands us far more imperiously than a master; for in disobeying the one we are unfortunate, and in disobeying the other we are fools.

Blaise Pascal

The consciousness of the falsity of present pleasures, and the ignorance of the vanity of absent pleasures, cause inconstancy.

Blaise Pascal

There are some who speak well and write badly. For the place and the audience warm them, and draw from their minds more than they think of without that warmth.

Blaise Pascal

I can well conceive a man without hands, feet, head. But I cannot conceive man without thought; he would be a stone or a brute.

Blaise Pascal

The weather and my mood have little connection. I have my foggy and my fine days within me; my prosperity or misfortune has little to do with the matter.

Blaise Pascal

Continuous eloquence wearies. Grandeur must be abandoned to be appreciated. Continuity in everything is unpleasant. Cold is agreeable, that we may get warm.

Blaise Pascal

The present letter is a very long one, simply because I had no leisure to make it shorter.

Blaise Pascal

The gospel to me is simply irresistible.

Blaise Pascal

Author Bio

  • NameBlaise Pascal
  • DescriptionFrench mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer, and Christian philosopher
  • BornJune 19, 1623
  • DiedAugust 19, 1662
  • CountryKingdom Of France
  • ProfessionMathematician; Philosopher; Theologian; Physicist; Writer