Blaise Pascal
Blaise Pascal
Blaise Pascalwas a French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer and Christian philosopher. He was a child prodigy who was educated by his father, a tax collector in Rouen. Pascal's earliest work was in the natural and applied sciences where he made important contributions to the study of fluids, and clarified the concepts of pressure and vacuum by generalising the work of Evangelista Torricelli. Pascal also wrote in defence of the scientific method...
NationalityFrench
ProfessionPhilosopher
Date of Birth19 June 1623
CityClermont-Ferrand, France
CountryFrance
[Christianity] endeavors equally to establish these two things: that God has set up in the Church visible signs to make himself known to those who should seek him sincerely, and that he has nevertheless so disguised them that he will only be perceived by those who seek him with all their heart.
The heart has arguments with which the logic of mind is not aquainted.
Thus so wretched is man that he would weary even without any cause for weariness... and so frivolous is he that, though full of a thousand reasons for weariness, the least thing, such as playing billiards or hitting a ball, is sufficient enough to amuse him.
We never do evil so effectually as when we are led to do it by a false principle of conscience.
All evil stems from this-that we do. Know how to handle your solitude.
It is of dangerous consequence to represent to man how near he is to the level of beasts, without showing him at the same time his greatness. It is likewise dangerous to let him see his greatness without his meanness. It is more dangerous yet to leave him ignorant of either; but very beneficial that he should be made sensible of both.
Continuous eloquence is tedious.
Two things control men's nature, instinct and experience.
Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature, but he is a thinking reed.
We only consult the ear because the heart is wanting.
The multitude which does not reduce itself to unity is confusion.
I have made this letter longer than usual, only because I have not had the time to make it shorter.
Lust is the source of all our actions, and humanity.
Dull minds are never either intuitive or mathematical.