Wisdom of Blaise Pascal

Blaise Pascal (June 19, 1623 – August 19, 1662), was a French mathematician, philosopher, physicist, and inventor.

A child prodigy, he wrote a remarkable dissertation on projective geometry at the age of 16. He later worked on probability theory, developed calculating machines, wrote a key treatise on the arithmetical triangle, and was a pioneer in the natural and applied sciences.

Below we list some words of wisdom from Blaise Pascal.

“When intuition and logic agree, you are always right.”

“I rather live as if God exists to find out that He doesn't than live as if he doesn't exist to find out He does.”

“The supreme function of reason is to show man that some things are beyond reason.”

“The more intelligent a man is, the more originality he discovers in others.”

“Kind words do not cost much. Yet they accomplish much.”

“The more I see of Mankind, the more I prefer my dog.”

“Nature imitates herself. A grain thrown into good ground brings forth fruit; a principle thrown into a good mind brings forth fruit. Everything is created and conducted by the same Master-the root, the branch, the fruits-the principles, the consequences.”

“In difficult times carry something beautiful in your heart.”

“Let each of us examine his thoughts; he will find them wholly concerned with the past or the future. We almost never think of the present, and if we do think of it, it is only to see what light is throws on our plans for the future. The present is never our end. The past and the present are our means, the future alone our end. Thus we never actually live, but hope to live, and since we are always planning how to be happy, it is inevitable that we should never be so.”

“Men are so completely fools by necessity that he is but a fool in a higher strain of folly who does not confess his foolishness.”

“People almost invariably arrive at their beliefs not on the basis of proof but on the basis of what they find attractive.”

“Distraction is the only thing that consoles us for our miseries. Yet it is itself the greatest of our miseries.”

“Truth is so obscure in these times, and falsehood so established, that, unless we love the truth, we cannot know it.”

“There are only three types of people; those who have found God and serve him; those who have not found God and seek him, and those who live not seeking, or finding him. The first are rational and happy; the second unhappy and rational, and the third foolish and unhappy.”

“Happiness is neither within us, nor without us. It is in the union of ourselves with God.”

“Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.”

“Time heals griefs and quarrels, for we change and are no longer the same persons. Neither the offender nor the offended are any more themselves.”

“The heart has its reasons of which reason knows nothing. We feel it in a thousand things. I say that the heart naturally loves the Universal Being, and naturally loves itself; and it gives itself to one or the other, and hardens itself against one or the other, as it chooses...it is the heart that feels God, not the reason; this is faith.”

“Once your soul has been enlarged by a truth, it can never return to its original size.”

“Human beings do not know their place and purpose. They have fallen from their true place, and lost their true purpose. They search everywhere for their place and purpose, with great anxiety. But they cannot find them because they are surrounded by darkness.”

“We know truth, not only by the reason, but also by the heart.”

“If I had more time I would write a shorter letter.”

Copyright © Scott Petullo, Stephen Petullo