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

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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...
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One must know oneself. If this does not serve to discover truth, it at least serves as a rule of lif...
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Desire and force between them are responsible for all our actions; desire causes our voluntary acts,...
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We like to be deceived.
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The charm of fame is so great that we like every object to which it is attached, even death.
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Even those who write against fame wish for the fame of having written well, and those who read their...
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Faith is different from proof; the latter is human, the former is a Gift from God.
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Faith embraces many truths which seem to contradict each other.
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Faith certainly tells us what the senses do not, but not the contrary of what they see; it is above,...
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It is the heart which perceives God and not the reason. That is what faith is: God perceived by the ...
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In faith there is enough light for those who want to believe and enough shadows to blind those who d...
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Two things control men's nature, instinct and experience.
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The heart has its reasons of which reason knows nothing: we know this in countless ways.
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Habit is the second nature which destroys the first.
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Habit is a second nature that destroys the first. But what is nature? Why is habit not natural? I am...
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If you would have people speak well of you, then do not speak well of yourself.
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Evil is easy, and has infinite forms.
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I have discovered that all human evil comes from this, man's being unable to sit still and quiet in ...
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Earnestness is enthusiasm tempered by reason.
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The struggle alone pleases us, not the victory.
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I maintain that, if everyone knew what others said about him, there would not be four friends in the...
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If all men knew what each said of the other, there would not be four friends in the world.
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Ugly deeds are most estimable when hidden.
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If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager then without hesitation, that He exi...
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He who does not know his way to the sea should take a river for his guide.
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It is superstitious to put one's hopes in formalities, but arrogant to refuse to submit to them.
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Nothing is as approved as mediocrity, the majority has established it and it fixes it fangs on whate...
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It is right that what is just should be obeyed. It is necessary that what is strongest should be obe...
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To go beyond the bounds of moderation is to outrage humanity.
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I have made this letter longer, because I have not had the time to make it shorter.
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The gospel to me is simply irresistible.
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Animals do not admire each other. A horse does not admire its companion.
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Contradiction is not a sign of falsity, nor the lack of contradiction a sign of truth.
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Nothing gives rest but the sincere search for truth.
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Our nature consist in motion; complete rest is death.
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There are only two kinds of men: the righteous who think they are sinners and the sinners who think ...
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The only shame is to have none
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It is the fight alone that pleases us, not the victory.
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The stream is always purer at its source. [Fr., Les choses valent toujours mieux dans leur source....
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The vanity of the sciences. Physical science will not console me for the ignorance of morality in th...
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Those who do not hate their own selfishness and regard themselves as more important than the rest of...
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It is in vain, 0 men, that you seek within yourselves the cure for your miseries. All your insight o...
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All man's miseries derive from not being able to sit quietly in a room alone.
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If all men knew what others say of them, there would not be four friends in the world.
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Men never do evil so fully and so happily as when they do it for conscience's sake.
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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...
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