Justice and power must be brought together, so that whatever is just may be powerful, and whatever is powerful may be just.
Blaise PascalRead
What reason have atheists for saying that we cannot rise again? That what has never been, should be, or that what has been, should be again? Is it more difficult to come into being than to return to it.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Pascal questions the reasoning of atheists concerning resurrection and existence.
In this quote, Blaise Pascal challenges the atheistic perspective on existence and resurrection, suggesting that it is not inherently more complex or improbable for something to come into being than for it to return to a prior state. He implies that the nature of existence and the potential for resurrection should not be dismissed without consideration of the paradox of being and non-being.
Themes
ExistenceResurrectionPhilosophyBeingAtheismNature
In practice
Example use cases
In a debate on the existence of a higher power, you might use this quote to underscore the complexity of existence.
More from Blaise Pascal
All quotes →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.
Blaise PascalRead
Those are weaklings who know the truth and uphold it as long as it suits their purpose, and then abandon it.
Blaise PascalRead
Jesus is the God whom we can approach without pride and before whom we can humble ourselves without despair.
Blaise PascalRead
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.
Blaise PascalRead
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?
Blaise PascalRead
Similar quotes
Like all young men I set out to be a genius, but mercifully laughter intervened.
Lawrence DurrellRead
Give us, O God, the vision which can see Your love in the world in spite of human failure. Give us the faith to trust Your goodness in spite of our ignorance and weakness. Give us the knowledge that we may continue to pray with understanding hearts. And show us what each one of us can do to set forward the coming of the day of universal peace.
Frank BormanRead
Let him that is without stone among you cast the first thing he can lay his hands on.
Robert FrostRead
As a rule it is circumstances that make men.
Napoleon BonaparteRead
If one does away with the fact of the Resurrection, one also does away with the Cross, for both stand and fall together, and one would then have to find a new center for the whole message of the gospel.
Hans Urs Von BalthasarRead
The eternal difference between right and wrong does not fluctuate, it is immutable.
Patrick HenryRead