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
Man is but a reed, the weakest in nature; but he is a thinking reed.
Man is but a reed, the most weak in nature, but he is a thinking reed
What is man in nature? Nothing in relation to the infinite, all in relation to nothing, a mean between nothing and everything
Who would desire to have for a friend a man who talks in this fashion? Who would choose him out from others to tell him of his affairs? Who would have recourse to him in affliction? And indeed to what use in life could one put him?
If there were only one religion, God would indeed be manifest.
Those whom we call ancient were really new in all things, and properly constituted the infancy of mankind.
The more I see of Mankind, the more I prefer my dog.
All the miseries of mankind come from one thing, not knowing how to remain alone.
We are fools to depend upon the society of our fellow-men. Wretched as we are, powerless as we are, they will not aid us; we shall die alone.
There is a God-shaped hole in the life of every man ...
Men despise religion. They hate it and are afraid it may be true. The cure for this is first to show that religion is not contrary to reason, but worthy of reverence and respect. Next make it attractive, make good men wish it were true and then show that it is.
If we would say that man is too insignificant to deserve communion with God, we must indeed be very great to judge of it.
The sensibility of man to trifles, and his insensibility to great things, indicates a strange inversion.
And which of you with taking thought can add to his stature one cubit?