Citater af Blaise Pascal (1623-1662)

Fransk matematiker og filosof, hvis værk Pensees (udgivet efter hans død i 1670) er en klassiker indenfor 'hengivelseslitterturen'. Pascal var matematiker og videnskabsmand, som udførte pionerarbejde indenfor sandsynlighedsteorien og vanddynmikken. Han byggede den første regnemaskine. I 1654 havde han en religiøs oplevelse så stærk, at den ændrede hans liv. Han forlod videnskaben og matematikken og begyndte at arbejde på en bog, som skulle forklare og retfærdiggøre kritendommen overfor tvivlende. Han døde i 1662, uden at værket var færdigt. Ikke desto mindre efterlod han en imponerende samling af essays og noter, nu kendt som 'Pensees'.

De ved ej, at de blot søger jagten og ingenlunde byttet. Eftersom vi altid træffer foranstaltninger til at blive lykkelige, er det uundgåeligt, at vi ikke altid er det.

Få taler ydmygt om ydmygheden, kysk om kyskheden, skeptisk om skepticismen.

Hjertet har sine grunde, som forstanden intet kender til.

Hvis Cleopatras næse havde været lidt kortere, ville hele verden have set anderledes ud.

Ikke at synes om filosofi er at være en ægte filosof.

Jeg frygter, at det, vi kalder natur, er en første vane, ligesom vanen er en anden natur.

Jeg har opdaget, at al menneskelig ondskab kommer fra den kendsgerning, at mennesket ikke er i stand til at sidde stille i et værelse.

Jo mere intelligent et menneske er, desto mere originalitet finder han i sine medmennsker. Ubegavede mennesker synes, at alle mennesker er ens.

Mennesket er blot et siv. Det svageste i naturen. Men det er et tænkende siv.

Engelske citater

Contradiction is not a sign of falsity, nor the lack of contradiction a sign of truth.

Curiosity is only vanity. Most frequently we wish not to know, but to talk. We would not take a sea voyage for the sole pleasure of seeing without hope of ever telling.

Earnestness is enthusiasm tempered by reason.

Eloquence is a painting of the thoughts.

Faith embraces many truths which seem to contradict each other.

Faith is different from proof; the latter is human, the former is a Gift from God.

I have discovered that all human evil comes from this, man's being unable to sit still in a room.

If all men knew what others say of them, there would not be four friends in the world.

Imagination disposes of everything; it creates beauty, justice, and happiness, which are everything in this world.

In faith there is enough light for those who want to believe and enough shadows to blind those who don't. It is not good to be too free. It is not good to have everything one wants.

It is the fight alone that pleases us, not the victory. Justice without force is powerless; force without justice is tyrannical.

Love has reasons which reason cannot understand.

Man is a reed, the weakest in nature, but a thinking reed.

Man's greatness lies in his power of thought.

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

Nature is an infinite sphere whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere.

People are usually more convinced by reasons they discovered themselves than by those found by others.

Since we cannot know all that there is to be known about anything, we ought to know a little about everything.

Small minds are concerned with the extraordinary, great minds with the ordinary.

The multitude which is not brought to act as a unity, is confusion. That unity which has not its origin in the multitude is tyranny.

The present letter is a very long one, simply because I had no leisure to make it shorter.

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

We must learn our limits. We are all something, but none of us are everything.

Being in the army is like being in the Boy Scouts, except that the Boy Scouts have adult supervision.