Justice and power must be brought together, so that whatever is just may be powerful, and whatever is powerful may be just.
Blaise PascalRead
In faith there is enough light for those who want to believe and enough shadows to blind those who don't.
Interpretation
Faith provides clarity for believers while casting doubt for non-believers.
This quote by Blaise Pascal highlights the dual nature of faith. It suggests that belief can offer guidance and understanding, illuminating one's path, whereas a lack of faith may lead to confusion and fear, akin to being blinded by shadows. Essentially, belief shapes our perception of reality, allowing some to see hope and purpose while leaving others in uncertainty.
In practice
In a speech about overcoming challenges, one might quote this to illustrate how perspective affects our realities.
Justice and power must be brought together, so that whatever is just may be powerful, and whatever is powerful may be just.
If we submit everything to reason our religion will be left with nothing mysterious or supernatural. If we offend the principles of reason our religion will be absurd and ridiculous . . . There are two equally dangerous extremes: to exclude reason, to admit nothing but reason.
Those are weaklings who know the truth and uphold it as long as it suits their purpose, and then abandon it.
Jesus is the God whom we can approach without pride and before whom we can humble ourselves without despair.
If he exalts himself, I humble him. If he humbles himself, I exalt him. And I go on contradicting him Until he understands That he is a monster that passes all understanding.
What use is it to us to hear it said of a man that he has thrown off the yoke that he does not believe there is a God to watch over his actions, that he reckons himself the sole master of his behavior, and that he does not intend to give an account of it to anyone but himself?
The fear of speculation, the ostensible rush from the theoretical to the practical, brings about the same shallowness in action that it does in knowledge. It is by studying a strictly theoretical philosophy that we become most acquainted with Ideas, and only Ideas provide action with vigour and ethical meaning.
You get racism crossing the street; it's in the very fabric of American society.
Economic and military power can be developed under the spur of laws and appropriations. But moral power does not derive from any act of Congress. It depends on the relations of a people to their God. It is the churches to which we must look to develop the resources for the great moral offensive that is required to make human rights secure, and to win a just and lasting peace.
History is a living whole. If one organ be removed, it is nothing but a lifeless mass.
The advice nearest to my heart and deepest in my convictions is that the Union of the States be cherished and perpetuated.
Today Americans are overcome not by the sense of endless possibility but by the banality of the social order they have erected against it.
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