Portrait of Blaise Pascal

Blaise Pascal

Pascal's Wager, mathematician

Early Modern influential 116 sayings

Sayings by Blaise Pascal

Man is so great that his greatness even manifests itself in knowing himself to be miserable.

1669 (posthumous) — Pensées
General Unverifiable

It is an error to suppose that there is any other good than God.

1669 (posthumous) — Pensées
Religious Unverifiable

The true good is to be found in God alone.

1669 (posthumous) — Pensées
Religious Unverifiable

Our nature is corrupted, and we are full of pride and self-love.

1669 (posthumous) — Pensées
General Unverifiable

The proper study of mankind is man.

N/A — Attributed to Alexander Pope, not Pascal. Pascal focused on man's relation to God.
General Unverifiable

The knowledge of man's misery without God is the knowledge of two things: his misery and his greatness.

1669 (posthumous) — Pensées
Religious Unverifiable

The more I see of the world, the more I am disgusted with it.

1669 (posthumous) — Pensées
General Unverifiable

If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter.

1657 — Lettres Provinciales
General Unverifiable

We are all born with a thirst for happiness, but we are all born with a thirst for something we cannot find on earth.

1669 (posthumous) — Pensées
General Unverifiable

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

1669 (posthumous) — Pensées
General Unverifiable

We are usually convinced more easily by reasons we have discovered ourselves than by those found by others.

1669 (posthumous) — Pensées
General Unverifiable

What is self? A man is a body and a mind. What is the body? A part of the mind. What is the mind? A part of God.

1669 (posthumous) — Pensées
General Unverifiable

Little things console us because little things afflict us.

1669 (posthumous) — Pensées
General Unverifiable

To ridicule philosophy is truly to philosophize.

1669 (posthumous) — Pensées
General Unverifiable

Our nature consists in motion; complete rest is death.

1669 (posthumous) — Pensées
Food & Drink Unverifiable

Man is full of desires: he loves all that he can obtain, but he does not know how to obtain it.

1669 (posthumous) — Pensées
Relationships Unverifiable

Custom is a second nature, which destroys the first.

1669 (posthumous) — Pensées
General Unverifiable

Man's greatness lies in his power of thought.

1669 (posthumous) — Pensées
Food & Drink Unverifiable

We are so unhappy that we can only be happy by diversion.

1669 (posthumous) — Pensées
General Unverifiable

It is not certain that everything is uncertain.

1669 (posthumous) — Pensées
General Unverifiable
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