Blaise Pascal

Kind words produce their own image in men's souls; and a beautiful image it is. They soothe and quiet and comfort the hearer. They shame him out of his sour, morose, unkind feelings. We have not yet begun to use kind words in such abundance as they ought to be used.

Men despise religion. They hate it and are afraid it may be true.

Unable to make what is just strong, we have made what is strong just.

Human beings must be known to be loved; but Divine beings must be loved to be known.

If magistrates had true justice, and if physicians had the true art of healing, they would have no occasion for square caps; the majesty of these sciences would itself be venerable enough.

The finite is annihilated in the presence of the infinite, and becomes a pure nothing. So our spirit before God, so our justice before divine justice.

Belief is a wise wager. Granted that faith cannot be proved, what harm will come to you if you gamble on its truth and it proves false? If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager, then, without hesitation, that He exists.

Silence. All human unhappiness comes from not knowing how to stay quietly in a room.

The least movement is of importance to all nature. The entire ocean is affected by a pebble.

The imagination disposes of everything. It creates beauty, justice, and happiness, which are the whole of the world.

Our nature lies in movement; complete calm is death.

All men have happiness as their object: there is no exception. However different the means they employ, they all aim at the same end.

Imagination disposes of everything; it creates beauty, justice, and happiness, which are everything in this world.

In each action we must look beyond the action at our past, present, and future state, and at others whom it affects, and see the relations of all those things. And then we shall be very cautious.

Passion cannot be beautiful without excess; one either loves too much or not enough.

In difficult times carry something beautiful in your heart.

We view things not only from different sides, but with different eyes; we have no wish to find them alike.

There are some who speak well and write badly. For the place and the audience warm them, and draw from their minds more than they think of without that warmth.

Do you wish people to think well of you? Don't speak well of yourself.

I am in the utmost perplexity, yand have wished a hundred times, that if there is a A God, nature would manifest him without ambiguity, and that if there is not, every imaginary sign of his existence might vanish : in short, let nature speak distinctly, or be totally silent, and I shall know what course to take.

If we must not act save on a certainty, we ought not to act on religion, for it is not certain. But how many things we do on an uncertainty, sea voyages, battles!