Blaise Pascal
Blaise Pascal
Blaise Pascalwas 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 generalising the work of Evangelista Torricelli. Pascal also wrote in defence of the scientific method...
NationalityFrench
ProfessionPhilosopher
Date of Birth19 June 1623
CityClermont-Ferrand, France
CountryFrance
Man's grandeur is that he knows himself to be miserable.
All evil stems from this-that we do. Know how to handle your solitude.
Extremes are for us as if they were not, and as if we were not in regard to them; they escape from us, or we from them.
Our senses will not admit anything extreme. Too much noise confuses us, too much light dazzles us, too great distance or nearness prevents vision, too great prolixity or brevity weakens an argument, too much pleasure gives pain, too much accordance annoys.
The greatness of man is great in that he knows himself to be wretched. A tree does not know itself to be wretched.
The Church limits her sacramental services to the faithful. Christ gave Himself upon the cross a ransom for all.
Earnestness is enthusiasm tempered by reason.
Atheism shows strength of mind, but only to a certain degree.
We have an idea of truth, invincible to all scepticism.
We are usually convinced more easily by reasons we have found ourselves than by those which have occurred to others.
Two similar faces, neither of which alone causes laughter, use laughter when they are together, by their resemblance.
We never love a person, but only qualities.
Man is nothing but insincerity, falsehood, and hypocrisy, both in regard to himself and in regard to others. He does not wish that he should be told the truth, he shuns saying it to others; and all these moods, so inconsistent with justice and reason, have their roots in his heart.
Continued eloquence is wearisome.