Inspirational Quotes by Blaise Pascal
“that the closed mem6 signified 600 years. But the time was foretold clearly, while the manner was figurative.”
“The last thing one settles in writing a book is what one should put in first.”
“God being thus hidden, any religion that does not say that God is hidden is not true, and any religion which does not explain why does not instruct. Ours does all thus. Verily thou art a God that hidest thyself.1”
“How I hate these follies of not believing in the Eucharist, &c.! If the Gospel be true, if Jesus Christ be God, what difficulty is there?”
“A trifle consoles us because a trifle upsets us.”
“Järelikult tuleb õiglus ja jõud ühendada; ja selleks teha nii, et selle käes, kes on õiglane, oleks jõud, või see, kelle käes on jõud, oleks õiglane”
“Justice is subject to dispute; might is easily recognized and is not disputed. So we cannot give might to justice.”
“There is enough light to enlighten the elect and enough obscurity to humiliate them. There is enough obscurity to blind the reprobate and enough light to condemn them and deprive them of excuse.”
“God wishes to move the will rather than the mind. Perfect clarity would help the mind and harm the will. Humble their pride.”
“We do not choose as captain of a ship the most highly born of those aboard.”
“There are only two kinds of men: righteous men who believe themselves sinners; the rest, sinners, who believe themselves righteous - Pascal”
“This religion taught its children what men had managed to know only at their most enlightened.”
“« La vanité est si ancrée dans le cœur de l’homme qu’un soldat, un goujat, un cuisinier, un crocheteur se vante et veut avoir ses admirateurs ; et les philosophes mêmes en veulent. Et ceux qui écrivent contre veulent avoir la gloire d’avoir bien écrit ; et ceux qui lisent veulent avoir la gloire de l’avoir lu ; et moi qui écris ceci, ai peut-être cette envie ».”
“We do not content ourselves with the life we have in ourselves and in our own being; we desire to live an imaginary life in the mind of others, and for this purpose we endeavor to shine. We labor unceasingly to adorn and preserve this imaginary existence, and neglect the real. And if we possess calmness, or generosity, or truthfulness, we are eager to make it known, so as to attach these virtues to that imaginary existence. [...] we would willingly be cowards in order to acquire the reputation of being brave.”
“Nous ne nous tenons jamais au présent. Nous anticipons l’avenir comme trop lent à venir, comme pour hâter son cours ; ou nous rappelons le passé, pour l’arrêter comme trop prompt. Si imprudents que nous errons dans les temps qui ne sont pas nôtres et ne pensons point au seul qui nous appartient !”
“Que chacun examine ses pensées ; il les trouvera toujours occupées au passé et à l’avenir. Nous ne pensons presque point au temps présent ; et si nous y pensons, ce n’est que pour en prendre la lumière pour disposer de l’avenir. Le présent n’est jamais notre fin ; le passé et le présent sont nos moyens ; le seul avenir est notre fin. Ainsi nous ne vivons jamais ; mais nous espérons vivre ( pensées )”
“This internal war of reason against the passions has made a division of those who would have peace into two sects. The first would renounce their passions, and become gods; the others would renounce reason, and become brute beasts. (Des Barreaux.) [157] But neither can do so, and reason still remains, to condemn the vileness and injustice of the passions, and to trouble the repose of those who abandon themselves to them; and the passions keep always alive in those who would renounce them.”
“[138] Diversion. It is easier to bear death when one is not thinking about it than the idea of death when there is no danger. (166)”
“Our soul is cast into a body, where it finds number, time, dimension. Thereupon it reasons, and calls this nature, necessity, and can believe nothing else. If there is a God, He is infinitely incomprehensible, since, having neither parts nor limits, He has no affinity to us. We are then incapable of knowing either what He is or if He is. This being so, who will dare to undertake the decision of the question? Not we, who have no affinity to Him.”
topics: pascal-wager
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Among the contemporaries of Descartes none displayed greater natural genius than Pascal, but his mathematical reputation rests more on what he might have done than on what he actually effected, as during a considerable part of his life he deemed it his duty to devote his whole time to religious exercises.
At 16, Pascal began designing a calculating machine, which he finally perfected when he was thirty, the pascaline, a beautiful handcrafted box about fourteen by five by three inches. The first accurate mechanical calculator was born.
Pascal was dismayed and disgusted by society's reactions to his machine and completely renounced his interest in science an mathematics, devoting the rest of his life to God. He is best known for his collection of spiritual essays, Les Pensees.
Ironically, Pascal, who was a genius by any measure, with one of the finest brains of all time, died of a brain hemorrhage at the age of 39.
Among the contemporaries of Descartes none displayed greater natural genius than Pascal, but his mathematical reputation rests more on what he might have done than on what he actually effected, as during a considerable part of his life he deemed it his duty to devote his whole time to religious exercises.
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.
In 1646, he and his sister Jacqueline identified with the religious movement within Catholicism known by its detractors as Jansenism. Following a mystical experience in late 1654, he had his "second conversion", abandoned his scientific work, and devoted himself to philosophy and theology. His two most famous works date from this period: the Lettres provinciales and the Pensees.
In honor of his scientific contributions, the name Pascal has been given to the SI unit of pressure, to a programming language, and Pascal's law (an important principle of hydrostatics), and as mentioned above, Pascal's triangle and Pascal's wager still bear his name.