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
Justice and power must be brought together, so that whatever is just may be powerful, and whatever is powerful may be just.
I bring you the gift of these four words: I believe in you.
All the troubles of life come upon us because we refuse to sit quietly for a while each day in our rooms.
To ridicule philosophy is really to philosophize.
I maintain that, if everyone knew what others said about him, there would not be four friends in the world.
The heart has its reasons which reason knows nothing of... We know the truth not only by the reason, but by the heart." - Blaise Pascal
Habit is the second nature which destroys the first.
We know then the existence and nature of the finite, because we also are finite and have extension. We know the existence of the infinite and are ignorant of its nature, because it has extension like us, but not limits like us. But we know neither the existence nor the nature of God, because he has neither extension nor limits.
There is a virtuous fear, which is the effect of faith; and there is a vicious fear, which is the product of doubt. The former leads to hope, as relying on God, in whom we believe; the latter inclines to despair, as not relying on God, in whom we do not believe. Persons of the one character fear to lose God; persons of the other character fear to find Him.
There is enough light for those who only desire to see, and enough obscurity for those who have a contrary disposition
The strength of a man's virtue should not be measured by his special exertions, but by his habitual acts.
Chess is the gymnasium of the mind.
Noble deeds that are concealed are most esteemed.
It has pleased God that divine verities should not enter the heart through the understanding, but the understanding through the heart.