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
The power of a man's virtue should not be measured by his special efforts, but by his ordinary doing
The serene, silent beauty of a holy life is the most powerful influence in the world, next to the night of God.
We are troubled only by the fears which we, and not nature, give ourselves.
Undoubtedly equality of goods is just; but, being unable to cause might to obey justice, men has made it just to obey might. Unable to strengthen justice, they have justified might--so that the just and the strong should unite, and there should be peace, which is the sovereign good.
The property of power is to protect.
Justice and power must be brought together, so that whatever is just may be powerful, and whatever is powerful may be just.
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.
The charm of fame is so great that we like every object to which it is attached, even death.
That we must love one God only is a thing so evident that it does not require miracles to prove it.
We must know where to doubt, where to feel certain, where to submit. He who does not do so, understands not the force of reason.
Clarity of mind means clarity of passion, too.
If man made himself the first object of study, he would see how incapable he is of going further. How can a part know the whole?
Brave deeds are wasted when hidden.
We are so presumptuous that we should like to be known all over the world, even by people who will only come when we are no more. Such is our vanity that the good opinion of half a dozen of the people around us gives us pleasure and satisfaction.