Book Brief: Pensees

Pascal's Pensées by Blaise Pascal
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Really good. I like the brief and scattered nature of the material. It’s a reminder that you can say a lot with a little. And not every thought has to be fully-baked in order for it to be useful. Pascal was abundantly insightful about so many things.


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Quotes

“People are generally better persuaded by the reasons which they have themselves discovered than by those which have come into the mind of others.”

“All great amusements are dangerous to the Christian life; but among all those which the world has invented there is none more to be feared than the theatre.”

“The last thing one settles in writing a book is what one should put in first.”

“Those honour Nature well, who teach that she can speak on everything, even on theology.”

“For it is far better to know something about everything than to know all about one thing.”

“Do you wish people to believe good of you? Don’t speak.”

“When we read too fast or too slowly, we understand nothing.”

“I cannot forgive Descartes. In all his philosophy he would have been quite willing to dispense with God. But he had to make Him give a fillip to set the world in motion; beyond this, he has no further need of God.”

“How comes it that a cripple does not offend us, but that a fool does? Because a cripple recognises that we walk straight, whereas a fool declares that it is we who are silly; if it were not so, we should feel pity and not anger. Epictetus asks still more strongly: ‘Why are we not angry if we are told that we have a headache, and why are we angry if we are told that we reason badly, or choose wrongly?’ The reason is that we are quite certain that we have not a headache, or are not lame, but we are not so sure that we make a true choice. So having assurance only because we see with our whole sight, it puts us into suspense and surprise when another with his whole sight sees the opposite, and still more so when a thousand others deride our choice. For we must prefer our own lights to those of so many others, and that is bold and difficult. There is never this contradiction in the feelings towards a cripple.”

“These two sources of truth, reason and the senses, besides being both wanting in sincerity, deceive each other in turn. The senses mislead the reason with false appearances, and receive from reason in their turn the same trickery which they apply to her; reason has her revenge. The passions of the soul trouble the senses, and make false impressions upon them. They rival each other in falsehood and deception.”

“When we see the same effect always recur, we infer a natural necessity in it, as that there will be a to-morrow, etc. But nature often deceives us, and does not subject herself to her own rules.”

“I set it down as a fact that if all men knew what each said of the other, there would not be four friends in the world.”

“How useless is painting, which attracts admiration by the resemblance of things, the originals of which we do not admire!”

“I have discovered that all the unhappiness of men arises from one single fact, that they cannot stay quietly in their own chamber.”

“He who does not see the vanity of the world is himself very vain.”

“We do not rest satisfied with the present. We anticipate the future as too slow in coming, as if in order to hasten its course; or we recall the past, to stop its too rapid flight. So imprudent are we that we wander in the times which are not ours, and do not think of the only one which belongs to us; and so idle are we that we dream of those times which are no more, and thoughtlessly overlook that which alone exists. For the present is generally painful to us. We conceal it from our sight, because it troubles us; and if it be delightful to us, we regret to see it pass away. We try to sustain it by the future, and think of arranging matters which are not in our power, for a time which we have no certainty of reaching. Let each one examine his thoughts, and he will find them all occupied with the past and the future. We scarcely ever think of the present; and if we think of it, it is only to take light from it to arrange the future. The present is never our end. The past and the present are our means; the future alone is our end. So we never live, but we hope to live; and, as we are always preparing to be happy, it is inevitable we should never be so.”

“There is no good in this life but in the hope of another.”

“The last proceeding of reason is to recognise that there is an infinity of things which are beyond it.”

“If we submit everything to reason, our religion will have no mysterious and supernatural element. If we offend the principles of reason, our religion will be absurd and ridiculous.”

“M. de Roannez said: ‘Reasons come to me afterwards, but at first a thing pleases or shocks me without my knowing the reason, and yet it shocks me for that reason which I only discover afterwards.’ But I believe, not that it shocked him for the reasons which were found afterwards, but that these reasons were only found because it shocks him.”

“We can only think of Plato and Aristotle in grand academic robes. They were honest men, like others, laughing with their friends, and when they diverted themselves with writing their Laws and the Politics, they did it as an amusement. That part of their life was the least philosophic and the least serious; the most philosophic was to live simply and quietly.”

“The strength of a man’s virtue must not be measured by his efforts, but by his ordinary life.”

“Contradiction is a bad sign of truth; several things which are certain are contradicted; several things which are false pass without contradiction. Contradiction is not a sign of falsity, nor the want of contradiction a sign of truth.”

“But what will you say is good? Chastity? I say no; for the world would come to an end. Marriage? No; continence is better. Not to kill? No; for lawlessness would be horrible, and the wicked would kill all the good. To kill? No; for that destroys nature. We possess truth and goodness only in part, and mingled with falsehood and evil.”

“During sleep we believe that we are awake as firmly as we do when we are awake.”

“Not only do we know God by Jesus Christ alone, but we know ourselves only by Jesus Christ.”

“It is not only impossible but useless to know God without Jesus Christ.”

“But we say that it must be believed for such and such a reason, which are feeble arguments, as reason may be bent to everything.”

“We understand nothing of the works of God, if we do not take as a principle that He has willed to blind some, and enlighten others.”

“I believe only the histories, whose witnesses got themselves killed.”

“To examine the prophecies, we must understand them. For if we believe they have only one meaning, it is certain that the Messiah has not come; but if they have two meanings, it is certain that He has come in Jesus Christ.”

“Two errors: 1. To take everything literally. 2. To take everything spiritually.”

“It is glorious to see with the eyes of faith the history of Herod and of Cæsar.”

“How fine it is to see, with the eyes of faith, Darius and Cyrus, Alexander, the Romans, Pompey and Herod working, without knowing it, for the glory of the Gospel!”

“Miracles prove the power which God has over hearts, by that which He exercises over bodies.”

“There is a pleasure in being in a ship beaten about by a storm, when we are sure that it will not founder. The persecutions which harass the Church are of this nature.”