One who would really like to know himself would have to be a restless, fanatical collector of disappointments, and seeking disappointing experiences must be like an addiction, the all-determining addiction of his life, for it would stand so clearly before his eyes that disappointment is not a hot, destroying poison, but rather a cool calming balm that opens our eyes to the real contours of ourselves.
Pascal Mercier
Related In the real world, they told you who to be, not the other way around. RHODA BELLEZA Reach out and help others. If you have the power to make someone happy, do it. Be a vessel, be the c... GERMANY KENT Kindness is universal. Sometimes being kind allows others to see the goodness in humanity through yo... GERMANY KENT He who is ashamed would like to force the world not to look at him, not to notice his exposure. He w... ERIK ERIKSON Be kind. We never know what people are going through. Give grace and mercy because one day your circ... GERMANY KENT Wars fought over a face like this,” he murmured like he was talking to himself, my heart stopped b... KRISTEN ASHLEY A coin is examined, and only after careful deliberation, given to a beggar, whereas a child is flung... PETER WESSEL ZAPFFE if it doesn't come bursting out of you in spite of everything, don't do it. unless it... CHARLES BUKOWSKI (All the grief she had suffered over her lifetime had moulded her face into a mask of eternal sadnes... JEAN SASSON If men lived like men indeed, their houses would be temples -- temples which we should hardly dare t... JOHN RUSKIN Disappointment is considered bad. A thoughtless prejudice. How, if not through disappointment, shoul... PASCAL MERCIER I am often asked how it is that I am able to value people to such a deep degree. Apparently, I exhib... C. JOYBELL C. 35. God is entitled to a portion of our income—not because He needs it but because we need to give... JAMES C. DOBSON Certainly it is no shame to a man that he should be as nice about his country as his sweetheart,- ye... JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL Oftentimes winning can become an addiction, whether good or bad, to the point where you would rather... CRISS JAMI My favourite animal is the koala, but his life would be boring. I would rather be a giraffe so that ... CATERINA MURINO I would like to get married, but it must be a man who is part of my work, or me part of his. ELSA PERETTI To do all that one is able to do, is to be a man; to do all that one would like to do, is to be a go... NAPOLEON BONAPARTE When my mind closes his eyes I try to forgive and forget; but whenever it opens at least one of his ... KAGABO BURANGA JACQUES Plunging in “truths” about God is like walking on the bottom of a sea that is not there, searchi... MARIANA FULGER Supposition all our lives shall be stuck full of eyes;
For treason is but trusted like the fox,
... WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE A person who doubts himself is like a man who would enlist in the ranks of his enemies and bear arms... ALEXANDER DUMAS A person who doubts himself is like a man who would enlist in the ranks of his enemies and bear arms... ALEXANDRE DUMAS A person who doubts himself is like a man who would enlist in the ranks of his enemies and bear arms... AMBROSE BIERCE A person who doubts himself is like a man who would enlist in the ranks of his enemies and bear arms... ALEXANDRE DUMAS Addiction is a symptom of not growing up. I know people think it's a disease... If you have a brain ... C. C. DEVILLE Life is not a game. Still, in this life, we choose the games we live to play. J.R. RIM We do not content ourselves with the life we have in ourselves and in our own being; we desire to li... BLAISE PASCAL I told the girls before the game that it would not be our offense that would win the game, it would ... SCOTT PETERSON I would say I work very emotionally: I have a very compulsive way of working, where I love something... JONATHAN ANDERSON The show is not about his personal life, ... but you get curious about that, so we wanted to get a g... DAVID SHORE In the fight against bigotry, we stand together and we must. In the fight against injustice, we stan... CYNTHIA MCKINNEY Don't settle for a normal life. Not when you can enjoy the wonderful weirdness of being who God crea... CRAIG GROESCHEL Humility is by far the most spiritual virtue of the lot. The only way by which one may cease obsessi... CRISS JAMI As far back as history records people thinking, thinking people
have been befuddled by the mysteries... LEWIS N. ROE She had been waiting for someone to notice her, like, really notice her. She felt that that was the ... ROSE FALL Gosh, you wouldn't pass up an opportunity like that. It would be pretty cool, but I think there are ... JANE SAVILLE All I ever did to that apartment was hang fifty yards of yellow theatrical silk across the bedroom w... JOAN DIDION We can never make proper goodbyes. It was your last ride in a Checker cab and you had no warning. It... COLSON WHITEHEAD Twitter is a real addiction, like the color of it, the process of it. EARL SWEATSHIRT I can speak of our baby like this to no one else. Who but his father would linger over the exact wid... PHILIPPA GREGORY He was lovable the way a child is lovable, and he was capable of returning love with a childlike pur... JONATHAN FRANZEN How lucky I am to have known somebody and something that saying goodbye to is so damned awful. EVANS G. VALENS Sherman made the terrible discovery that men make about their fathers sooner or later... that the ma... TOM WOLFE I would really like to do a really cool one-hour show, maybe on, like, HBO or something like that; o... JENNIFER LOVE HEWITT To be or not to be. That's not really a question. JEAN-LUC GODARD He swore by all that he ever had loved and reverenced that he would try, try with all his might in t... GENE STRATTON-PORTER He is such an unselfish player. He loves to be a playmaker, but at times he would rather set someone... IAN MCCARTHY My experience as an addict was very useful to me as writer: the whole syndrome of addiction and with... WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS You must save what you can of your life; you musn't lose it all simply because you've lost a part. HENRY JAMES I know in my soul when something feels like a sell out and I think for me, I knew that if I did the ... ERIC AVERY If we were not all so interested in ourselves, life would be so uninteresting that none of us would ... ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER …it would be like gazing at the photograph of a dead comrade; those are his features, it is his fa... ERICH MARIA REMARQUE I believe that there is a Matrix and... to be more accurate I am in the Pornography Matrix. DEYTH BANGER To be a success, you have to break down your wall of fear that you built around you to protect yours... DEBASISH MRIDHA Maybe it would be better to acknowledge, like the Greeks, that a lot of behavior we call addiction i... DANIEL AKST Seven principles for eradicating selfish ambition in the fellowship: 2. the ministry of meekness ... DIETRICH BONHOEFFER The American system is a beautiful and durable thing, but flawed. I would like to think that this de... MARK LEIBOVICH If one got too concerned with motivation, his eyes would kind of roll. He and John have collaborated... DANNY HUSTON I would be the first to tell you that if 50 percent of the guys I put on the Super Prep All-American... ALLEN WALLACE Today, I saw an owl with broken eyes. A blind owl with eyes that look like a dark night filled with ... C. JOYBELL C. What if that thing would have blown right into his eyes or something like that. JOSE TORRES If we were not all so excessively interested in ourselves, life would be so uninteresting that none ... ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER If other people do not understand our behavior—so what? Their request that we must only do what th... ERICH FROMM He leaned down and kissed my forehead. The soft melody of his lips was calming. I closed my eyes. I ... ALYSHA SPEER Something like that changes the quality of life here. I would rather have a trailer over there than ... GREG WILLIAMSON If God give you strength and courage, don't use it to intimidate people or overpower them, rather us... ANTHONY LICCIONE He would be able to create a scent that was not merely human, but super human, an angels scent, so i... PATRICK SüSKIND The world is full of fools; and he who would not wish to see one, must not only shut himself up alon... NICHOLAS BOILEAU Did Superman really want to save the world, or did he just feel like he had to? Would he much rather... GERARD WAY A man would know the end he goes to, but he cannot know it if he does not turn, and return to his be... URSULA K. LE GUIN You may fancy the Lord had His own power to fall back upon. But that would have been to Him just the... GEORGE MACDONALD He would be admitting to himself that life has suddenly become very short, very precious, that soon ... MIRIAM TOEWS Some people never take a chance and never know what it's like to live life to the full. CHLOE THURLOW Don't be led to believe that all who have travelled have seen the world, all who are loved have foun... JOEY COLEMAN There's plenty of money out there. They print more every day. But this ticket, there's only five of ... ROALD DAHL What a wee little part of a person's life are his acts and his words! His real life is led in his he... MARK TWAIN But if I thought on it, I would like to be remembered as a brother who loved his people and did ever... LOUIS FARRAKHAN Sherman made the terrible discovery that men make about their fathers sooner or later...that the man... THOMAS WOLFE The approval of someone like him, who clearly cared for no one, seemed like it would be worth more. MAGGIE STIEFVATER I have the obsessiveness of someone who's a sober, recovering addict displacing his addiction. E... JOHN MAYER And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as
his eyes unto heaven, but smote u... BIBLE He went through a lot of trials and tribulations. He would get hate mail slipped under his dorm room... GARRETT TEMPLE He would drive his strength against a mountain and plunge his strength against the sea...but know th... POPE JOHN XXII Be the girl you want your daughter to be. Be the girl you want your son to date. Be classy, be smart... GERMANY KENT Sure, climbing Mount Everest would be cool, but that's something I would now like to do as a fam... HEIDI KLUM The earth is an arena of champions. We are all champions. We all did overcome millions of potential ... ERNEST AGYEMANG YEBOAH Here's something else I'd like your opinion about," I said. "If he went back underground and sat dow... PLATO If you think like a leader, act like a leader, inspire like a leader then you are a leader. DEBASISH MRIDHA We had a cousin serving overseas, so we kind of put ourselves in his shoes and thought about what it... BRITTANY BERGQUIST A man who gives himself to be a possession of aliens leads a Yahoo life, having bartered his soul to... T. E. LAWRENCE If we lived for ever, what you say would be true. But we have to die, we have to leave life presentl... E.M. FORSTER I would like to direct a movie, but not a glossy feature film. I am thinking it would be more like a... EVA HERZIGOVA I wanted to get out of school for the day, but if I wrote that, I knew that I wouldn't get picked. I... EILEEN JOSEPH He came to put a harlot above a Pharisee, a penitent robber above a High Priest, and a prodigal son ... FULTON J. SHEEN Suppose that we could close our eyes today and see the real certainties and uncertainties of tomorro... ERNEST AGYEMANG YEBOAH A prince must imitate the fox and the lion, for the lion cannot protect himself from traps, and the ... NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI By declaring that man is responsible and must actualize the potential meaning of his life, I wish to... VIKTOR E. FRANKL Insensibly he formed the most delightful habit in the world, the habit of reading: he did not know t... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Perhaps a physicist would know at once why this whole idea was absurd. But then, perhaps a physicist... ORSON SCOTT CARD
More Pascal Mercier
We leave something of ourselves behind when we leave a place, we stay there, even though we go away.... PASCAL MERCIER A feeling is no longer the same when it comes the second time. It dies through the awareness of its ... PASCAL MERCIER Each of us is several, is man, is a profusion of selves. So that the self who disdains his surroundi... PASCAL MERCIER Given that we can live only a small part of what there is in us -- what happens with the rest? PASCAL MERCIER In the years afterward, I fled whenever somebody began to understand me. That has subsided. But one ... PASCAL MERCIER SOLIDAO, LONELINESS. What is it that we call loneliness. It can't simply be the absence of othe... PASCAL MERCIER That words could cause something in the world, make someone move or stop, laugh or cry: even as a ch... PASCAL MERCIER To live for the moment: it sounds so right and so beautiful. But the more I want to, the less I unde... PASCAL MERCIER NOBREZA SILENCIOSA. SILENT NOBILITY. It is a mistake to believe that the crucial moments of a life w... PASCAL MERCIER I love tunnels. They 're the symbol of hope: sometime it will be bright again. If by chance it... PASCAL MERCIER Disappointment is considered bad. A thoughtless prejudice. How, if not through disappointment, shoul... PASCAL MERCIER So, the fear of death might be described as the fear of not being able to become whom one had planne... PASCAL MERCIER Isn't it true that it's not people who meet, but rather the shadows cast by their imaginations? PASCAL MERCIER When we talk about ourselves, about others, or simply about things, we want- it could be said – to... PASCAL MERCIER It wasn't only that you didn't see him anymore, meet him anymore. You saw his absence and encountere... PASCAL MERCIER Human beings can't bear silence. It would mean that they would bear themselves. PASCAL MERCIER To understand yourself: Is that a discovery or a creation? PASCAL MERCIER Sometimes, we are afraid of something because we're afraid of something else. PASCAL MERCIER Life is not what we live; it is what we imagine we are living. PASCAL MERCIER ...the dreamlike, bombastic wish to stand once again at that point in my life and be able to take a ... PASCAL MERCIER Encounters between people, it often seems to me, are like trains passing at breakneck speed in the n... PASCAL MERCIER Why do we feel sorry for people who can't travel? Because, unable to expand externally, they are not... PASCAL MERCIER But when we set out to understand somebody’s inside? Is that a trip that ever ends? Is the soul a ... PASCAL MERCIER We are all patchwork, and so shapeless and diverse in composition that each bit, each moment, plays ... PASCAL MERCIER To stand by yourself -- that was also part of dignity. That way, a person could get through a public... PASCAL MERCIER [Vanity] is an unrecognised form of stupidity, you have to forget the cosmic meaninglessness of all ... PASCAL MERCIER I am still there, at that distant place in time, I never left it, but live expanded in the past, or ... PASCAL MERCIER O VENENO ARDENTE DO DESGOSTO. THE WHITE HOT POISON OF ANGER. When others make us angry at them-... PASCAL MERCIER Don't waste your time, do something worthwhile with it." But what can that mean: worthwhile? Fi... PASCAL MERCIER Then there was a silence he had never before experienced: in it, you could hear the years. PASCAL MERCIER Loyalty... A will, a decision, a resolution of the soul. PASCAL MERCIER I would not like to live in a world without cathedrals. I need their beauty and grandeur. I need the... PASCAL MERCIER What separates me from my present is like a fine mist, an intangible veil, an invisible wall. They d... PASCAL MERCIER What we learn with pleasure we never forget. ALFRED MERCIER We are hopeful (it will end well) but we are worried. BERNADETTE MERCIER He said he would do nothing to the children, that he would free them tonight. He's very depressed, h... BERNADETTE MERCIER He promised a teacher's assistant that he would do no harm to the students. BERNADETTE MERCIER He's very depressed, he just wants a job. BERNADETTE MERCIER [Waiting for Godot] has achieved a theoretical impossibility—a play in which nothing happens, that... VIVIAN MERCIER What we learn with pleasure we never forget ALFRED MERCIER He understood, and he was cooperative. BILL MERCIER Soliciting is the handing out of materials or distributing things to people, and essentially, that's... BILL MERCIER If people see people on campus that they are suspicious of, there is no problem with calling us. BILL MERCIER We certainly are going to be giving (parking) lots special attention over the next couple of weeks. BILL MERCIER Officers will have a pre-basic training class and a test on the use of force and probable cause on a... BILL MERCIER The physical agility test is pass/fail. The public safety department will administer a standard poli... BILL MERCIER Don't post any contact information anywhere that unwanted people might be able to find it. BILL MERCIER We're going to get overrun with e-mails and take a beating on this. They didn't want that road punch... PAUL MERCIER The last thing one knows is what to put first. PASCAL The heart has its reasons that reason does not know. -Pascal. PASCAL The fates are not quite obdurate; they have a grim, sardonic way of granting them who supplicate the... ROSELLE MERCIER MONTGOMERY We must not only give what we have; we must also give what we are. DESIRE-JOSEPH MERCIER Never a ship sails out of bay but carries my heart as a stowaway ROSELLE MERCIER MONTGOMERY Extremes meet. LOUIS SEBASTIAN MERCIER Never a ship sails out of bay but carries my heart as a stowaway. ROSELLE MERCIER MONTGOMERY When we are in love we seem to ourselves quite different from what we were before. BLAISE PASCAL We sail within a vast sphere, ever drifting in uncertainty, driven from end to end. BLAISE PASCAL The sensitivity of men to small matters, and their indifference to great ones, indicates a strange i... BLAISE PASCAL Love has reasons which reason cannot understand. BLAISE PASCAL He no longer loves the person whom he loved ten years ago. I quite believe it. She is no longer the ... BLAISE PASCAL I do not admire a virtue like valour when it is pushed to excess, if I do not see at the same time t... BLAISE PASCAL The present letter is a very long one, simply because I had no leisure to make it shorter. BLAISE PASCAL On vanity: The nose of Cleopatra: if it had been shorter, the face of the earth would have changed. BLAISE PASCAL The last act is bloody, however fine the rest of the play. They throw earth over your head and it is... BLAISE PASCAL Now and then I find a kitschy series I love. ADAM PASCAL I've always really been into science, and in the last five years I've gotten into theoretica... ADAM PASCAL I feel like I'm a good actor, but I wouldn't call myself a gifted actor. ADAM PASCAL You know, sometimes I get moments of inspiration when I'm writing something and then the task se... ADAM PASCAL Ignorance is bliss. I wish I still had some. ADAM PASCAL The same way that some people can play the piano, I can do plots! They just come! FRANCINE PASCAL I like to play poker. I have a nice poker group that's been going on for years. FRANCINE PASCAL Since I was a small child, I was always writing either poems or plays... plays in which I had the st... FRANCINE PASCAL When I first thought of the idea for 'Sweet Valley High,' I loved the idea of high school as... FRANCINE PASCAL I always loved reading. Growing up, my favorite book was 'A Child's Garden of Verses,' b... FRANCINE PASCAL I don't do rewrites. I put all the pages in a pile next to the typewriter. FRANCINE PASCAL I know you think that when you're 35, 45, 55, you'll be different. But I'm going to let ... FRANCINE PASCAL I always had a fascination with twins. FRANCINE PASCAL No matter when you were born or where, puberty is the same. It's the same for your parents as it... FRANCINE PASCAL I get some of my ideas from watching my three daughters, but most of them come from my own memories ... FRANCINE PASCAL Justice is what is established; and thus all our established laws will necessarily be regarded as ju... BLAISE PASCAL Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature, but he is a thinking reed. BLAISE PASCAL The immortality of the soul is a matter which is of so great consequence to us and which touches us ... BLAISE PASCAL People are generally better persuaded by the reasons which they have themselves discovered than by t... BLAISE PASCAL Do you wish people to think well of you? Don't speak well of yourself. BLAISE PASCAL Noble deeds that are concealed are most esteemed. BLAISE PASCAL I have made this letter longer than usual, only because I have not had the time to make it shorter. BLAISE PASCAL Truth is so obscure in these times, and falsehood so established, that, unless we love the truth, we... BLAISE PASCAL Man's greatness lies in his power of thought. BLAISE PASCAL If you gain, you gain all. If you lose, you lose nothing. Wager then, without hesitation, that He ex... BLAISE PASCAL Justice without force is powerless; force without justice is tyrannical. BLAISE PASCAL It is not good to have too much liberty. It is not good to have all one wants. BLAISE PASCAL All man's miseries derive from not being able to sit quietly in a room alone. BLAISE PASCAL The property of power is to protect. BLAISE PASCAL Nature is an infinite sphere whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere. BLAISE PASCAL Vanity is so secure in the heart of man that everyone wants to be admired: even I who write this, ... BLAISE PASCAL Those are weaklings who know the truth and uphold it as long as it suits their purpose, and then aba... BLAISE PASCAL If we examine our thoughts, we shall find them always occupied with the past and the future. BLAISE PASCAL Man is obviously made for thinking. Therein lies all his dignity and his merit; and his whole duty i... BLAISE PASCAL Man is only a reed, the weakest in nature; but he is a thinking reed. There is no need for the whole... BLAISE PASCAL Men despise religion. They hate it and are afraid it may be true. BLAISE PASCAL Human beings must be known to be loved; but Divine beings must be loved to be known. BLAISE PASCAL It all starts offensively with Billy. He has had a tremendous career at Holy Cross. This fall he rea... ADAM PASCAL We are looking for guys who won't take any time off and want to compete. We expect our players to do... ADAM PASCAL The key for us is to not back down. We have to realize that until the game is over we have a chance ... ADAM PASCAL We are trying to turn this program around so there is a great deal of enthusiasm with all of the kid... ADAM PASCAL Their leadership will be critical this year with having graduated such a big class last year. We bro... ADAM PASCAL We played in a lot of close games last year including an 11-10 double overtime loss to Army which ma... ADAM PASCAL I had more fun making the movie than I did making the show Off-Broadway [where Rent began]. I'm olde... ADAM PASCAL I've become a little disillusioned with what's happening in the theatrejust in the material that's b... ADAM PASCAL [While he's seen] lots of parts of the filmand it's just beautiful, ... I think Rent fans would go s... ADAM PASCAL Paul came on strong late last season after going through some injuries early on. I can't think of ma... ADAM PASCAL We never live, but we hope to live; and as we are always arranging to be happy, it must be that we n... BLAISE PASCAL Between us and heaven or hell there is only life, which is the frailest thing in the world. BLAISE PASCAL I have made this letter a rather long one, only because I didn't have the leisure to make it shorter... BLAISE PASCAL If I had more time I would write a shorter letter. BLAISE PASCAL The last thing we decide in writing a book is what to put first. BLAISE PASCAL The last thing one discovers in composing a work is what to put first. BLAISE PASCAL It is not good to be too free. It is not good to have everything one wants. BLAISE PASCAL How I hate these follies of not believing in the Eucharist, &c.! If the Gospel be true, if Jesus... BLAISE PASCAL Il n'est pas certain que tout soit incertain. (Translation: It is not certain that everything i... BLAISE PASCAL If we let ourselves believe that man began with divine grace, that he forfeited this by sin, and tha... BLAISE PASCAL The charm of fame is so great that we like every object to which it is attached, even death. BLAISE PASCAL The pagans do not know God, and love only the earth. The Jews know the true God, and love only the ... BLAISE PASCAL Words differently arranged have a different meaning, and meanings differently arranged have a differ... BLAISE PASCAL Progressive thought is blind when it suggests that there can be no anti-white racism or an anti-semi... PASCAL BRUCKNER I would prefer an intelligent hell to a stupid paradise. BLAISE PASCAL People almost invariably arrive at their beliefs not on the basis of proof but on the basis of what ... BLAISE PASCAL He slowed down a bit more. "Gaia, how do you know these things?" She shrugged. "I'm smart." "And mod... FRANCINE PASCAL It's so trendy, almost bleeding to death. All the cool girls are doing it. FRANCINE PASCAL The heart has its reasons which reason knows not. BLAISE PASCAL Nothing is so intolerable to man as being fully at rest, without a passion, without business, withou... BLAISE PASCAL However vast a man's spiritual resources, he is capable of but one great passion. BLAISE PASCAL We must learn our limits. We are all something but none of us are everything. BLAISE PASCAL To find recreation in amusement is not happiness. BLAISE PASCAL To have no time for philosophy is to be a true philosopher. BLAISE PASCAL The origins of disputes between philosophers is, that one class of them have undertaken to raise man... BLAISE PASCAL People are usually more convinced by reasons they discovered themselves than by those found out by o... BLAISE PASCAL We like security: we like the pope to be infallible in matters of faith, and grave doctors to be so ... BLAISE PASCAL There are only three types of people; those who have found God and serve him; those who have not fou... BLAISE PASCAL The more intelligent one is, the more men of originality one finds. Ordinary people find no differen... BLAISE PASCAL Anyone who considers himself in this way will be seized with terror and, discovering that the mass n... BLAISE PASCAL Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature; but he is a thinking reed. The entire universe n... BLAISE PASCAL What a chimera then is man. What a novelty! What a monster, what a chaos, what a contradiction, what... BLAISE PASCAL We only consult the ear because the heart is wanting. BLAISE PASCAL Law, without force, is impotent. BLAISE PASCAL Beauty is a harmonious relation between something in our nature and the quality of the object which ... BLAISE PASCAL Man finds nothing so intolerable as to be in a state of complete rest, without passions, without occ... BLAISE PASCAL On the occasions when I have pondered over men's various activities, the dangers and worries they ar... BLAISE PASCAL Men never do evil so fully and cheerfully as when we do it out of conscience. BLAISE PASCAL We are only falsehood, duplicity, contradiction; we both conceal and disguise ourselves from ourselv... BLAISE PASCAL The war existing between the senses and reason. BLAISE PASCAL Jesus is the God whom we can approach without pride and before whom we can humble ourselves without ... BLAISE PASCAL The highest order of mind is accused of folly, as well as the lowest. Nothing is thoroughly approved... BLAISE PASCAL Imagination disposes of everything; it creates beauty, justice, and happiness, which is everything i... BLAISE PASCAL The whole visible world is only an imperceptible atom in the ample bosom of nature. No idea approach... BLAISE PASCAL One must know oneself. If this does not serve to discover truth, it at least serves as a rule of lif... BLAISE PASCAL Desire and force between them are responsible for all our actions; desire causes our voluntary acts,... BLAISE PASCAL We like to be deceived. BLAISE PASCAL The charm of fame is so great that we like every object to which it is attached, even death. BLAISE PASCAL Even those who write against fame wish for the fame of having written well, and those who read their... BLAISE PASCAL Faith is different from proof; the latter is human, the former is a Gift from God. BLAISE PASCAL Faith embraces many truths which seem to contradict each other. BLAISE PASCAL Faith certainly tells us what the senses do not, but not the contrary of what they see; it is above,... BLAISE PASCAL It is the heart which perceives God and not the reason. That is what faith is: God perceived by the ... BLAISE PASCAL In faith there is enough light for those who want to believe and enough shadows to blind those who d... BLAISE PASCAL Two things control men's nature, instinct and experience. BLAISE PASCAL The heart has its reasons of which reason knows nothing: we know this in countless ways. BLAISE PASCAL Habit is the second nature which destroys the first. BLAISE PASCAL Habit is a second nature that destroys the first. But what is nature? Why is habit not natural? I am... BLAISE PASCAL If you would have people speak well of you, then do not speak well of yourself. BLAISE PASCAL Evil is easy, and has infinite forms. BLAISE PASCAL I have discovered that all human evil comes from this, man's being unable to sit still and quiet in ... BLAISE PASCAL Earnestness is enthusiasm tempered by reason. BLAISE PASCAL The struggle alone pleases us, not the victory. BLAISE PASCAL I maintain that, if everyone knew what others said about him, there would not be four friends in the... BLAISE PASCAL If all men knew what each said of the other, there would not be four friends in the world. BLAISE PASCAL Ugly deeds are most estimable when hidden. BLAISE PASCAL If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager then without hesitation, that He exi... BLAISE PASCAL He who does not know his way to the sea should take a river for his guide. BLAISE PASCAL It is superstitious to put one's hopes in formalities, but arrogant to refuse to submit to them. BLAISE PASCAL Nothing is as approved as mediocrity, the majority has established it and it fixes it fangs on whate... BLAISE PASCAL It is right that what is just should be obeyed. It is necessary that what is strongest should be obe... BLAISE PASCAL To go beyond the bounds of moderation is to outrage humanity. BLAISE PASCAL I have made this letter longer, because I have not had the time to make it shorter. BLAISE PASCAL The gospel to me is simply irresistible. BLAISE PASCAL Animals do not admire each other. A horse does not admire its companion. BLAISE PASCAL Contradiction is not a sign of falsity, nor the lack of contradiction a sign of truth. BLAISE PASCAL Nothing gives rest but the sincere search for truth. BLAISE PASCAL Our nature consist in motion; complete rest is death. BLAISE PASCAL There are only two kinds of men: the righteous who think they are sinners and the sinners who think ... BLAISE PASCAL The only shame is to have none BLAISE PASCAL It is the fight alone that pleases us, not the victory. BLAISE PASCAL The stream is always purer at its source.
[Fr., Les choses valent toujours mieux dans leur source.... BLAISE PASCAL The vanity of the sciences. Physical science will not console me for the ignorance of morality in th... BLAISE PASCAL Those who do not hate their own selfishness and regard themselves as more important than the rest of... BLAISE PASCAL It is in vain, 0 men, that you seek within yourselves the cure for your miseries. All your insight o... BLAISE PASCAL All man's miseries derive from not being able to sit quietly in a room
alone. BLAISE PASCAL If all men knew what others say of them, there would not be four friends in the world. BLAISE PASCAL Men never do evil so fully and so happily as when they do it for conscience's sake. BLAISE PASCAL What use is it to us to hear it said of a man that he has thrown off the yoke, that he does not beli... BLAISE PASCAL