Inspirational Quotes by Blaise Pascal
“God is none other than the Savior 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.”
topics: Self-righteousness
“Our own interests are still an exquisite means for dazzling our eyes agreeably.”
topics: Selfishness
“There are only two kinds of men: the righteous who think they are sinners and the sinners who think they are righteous.”
“Little things console us because little things afflict us.”
topics: Suffering
“Contradiction is not a sign of falsity, nor the lack of contradiction a sign of truth.”
topics: Truth
“He that takes truth for his guide, and duty for his end, may safely trust to God's providence to lead him aright.”
“It is natural for the mind to believe and for the will to love; so that, for want of true objects, they must attach themselves to false.”
topics: Truth
“Nothing fortifies scepticism more than the fact that there are some who are not sceptics; if all were so, they would be wrong.”
topics: Truth
“One must know oneself. If this does not serve to discover truth, it at least serves as a rule of life and there is nothing better.”
topics: Truth
“Too much and too little wine. Give him none, he cannot find truth; give him too much, the same.”
topics: Truth
“Truth is so obscure in these times, and falsehood so established, that, unless we love the truth, we cannot know it.”
topics: Truth
“We know the truth, not only by the reason, but also by the heart.”
“It is not the length of years but a multitude of generations that makes things obscure. For truth is only perverted when men change.”
“The infinite distance between the mind & the body is a symbol of the distance that is infinitely more, between the intellect & love, for love is divine.”
“Κακώς έχουμε αφαιρέσει τον χαρακτηρισμό του λογικού από τον έρωτα, αντιπαραβάλλοντας τα χωρίς πραγματική βάση, διότι έρωτας και λογική είναι ένα και το αυτό. Αποτελεί ο έρωτας μια στιβάδα σκέψεων που κατατείνει προς μια πλευρά χωρίς να καλοεξετάζει τα πάντα - συνιστά όμως πάντοτε μια λογική, δεν πρέπει δε και δεν μπορούμε να ευχόμαστε να ήταν διαφορετικά, γιατί τότε θα ήμασταν πολύ δυσάρεστες μηχανές. Ας μην αποκλείουμε λοιπόν τη λογική απ' τον έρωτα, γιατί αποτελεί αναπόσπαστο μέρος του.”
“Δεν αρέσει στον άνθρωπο να μένει με τον εαυτό του κι εκτός τούτου, αγαπά: πρέπει λοιπόν να γυρέψει αλλού τι ν' αγαπήσει. Κι αυτό μπορεί να το βρει μόνο στην ομορφιά' όντας όμως ο ίδιος το ωραιότερο δημιούργημα του Θεού, πρέπει να βρει εντός του το πρότυπο της ομορφιάς που αναζητεί εκτός. Καθένας δύναται να διακρίνει μέσα του τις πρώτες ακτίνες της και αντιλαμβανόμενοι κατά πόσον ό,τι συναντούμε στον εξωτερικό κόσμο προσεγγίζει ή απέχει απ΄το πρότυπο αυτό, διαμορφώνουμε την ιδέα του ωραίου και του άσχημου για όλα τα πράγματα. Ωστόσο, μολονότι ο άνθρωπος ψάχνει με τι να πληρώσει το μέγα κενό που επέφερε βγαίνοντας απ' τον εαυτό του, παρά ταύτα δεν μπορεί να ικανοποιηθεί με οποιοδήποτε αντικείμενο. Η καρδιά του είναι απέραντη' πρέπει τουλάχιστον να είναι κάποιο πρόσωπο που της μοιάζει, που να είναι όσο πιο κοντά της. Γι' αυτό και η ομορφιά που μπορεί να ικανοποιήσει τον άνθρωπο βρίσκεται όχι μόνο στην αναλογία, αλλά και στην ομοιότητα: αυτή την περιορίζει και την εγκλείει στη διαφορά του φύλου.”
“Το πρώτο αποτέλεσμα του έρωτα είναι να εμπνέει μεγάλο σεβασμό: αισθανόμαστε ευλάβεια γι' αυτόν που αγαπάμε. Είναι πολύ σωστό: δεν αναγνωρίζουμε στον κόσμον όλο τίποτε πιο μεγάλο απ' αυτό.”
“Attachment to the same thought wearies and destroys the mind of man. Hence for the solidity and permanence of the pleasure of love, it is sometimes necessary not to know that we love; and this is not to be guilty of an infidelity, for we do not therefore love another; it is to regain strength in order to love the better. This happens without our thinking of it; the mind is borne hither of itself; nature wills it, commands it. It must however be confessed that this is a miserable consequence of human weakness, and that we should be happier of we were not forced to change of thought; but there is no remedy.”
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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.