Blaise Pascal

The consciousness of the falsity of present pleasures, and the ignorance of the vanity of absent pleasures, cause inconstancy.

We are so presumptuous that we would wish to be known by all the world, even by people who shall come after, when we shall be no more.

All men's miseries derive from not being able to sit in a quiet room alone.

The charm of fame is so great that we like every object to which it is attached, even death.

We do not content ourselves with the life we have in ourselves and in our own being; we desire to live an imaginary life in the mind of others.

Nothing gives rest but the sincere search for truth.

It is the fight alone that pleases us, not the victory.

The power of a man's virtue should not be measured by his special efforts, but by his ordinary life.

We shall die alone.

The final act is tragic, however happy all the rest of the play is; at the last a little earth is thrown upon our head, and that is the end forever.

Man is a thinking reed, but his great works are done when he is not calculating and thinking.

Faith certainly tells us what the senses do not, but not the contrary of what they see; it is above, not against them.

The least movement is of importance to all nature. The entire ocean is affected by a pebble.

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