The Thoughts of Blaise Pascal

"For the king of the North"--Antiochus the Great--"shall return with a greater multitude than before,"--in the reign of the young Ptolemy Epiphanes--"and then a great number of...

Thus each degree of good fortune which raises us in the world removes us further from truth, because we fear most to wound those whose affection is most useful, and whose dislik...

This neglect of a matter in which themselves are concerned, their eternity, and their all, makes me angry rather than compassionate; it astonishes and terrifies me, it is to me...

The example of Alexander's chastity has not made so many continent as that of his drunkenness has made intemperate. It is not shameful to be less virtuous than he, and it seems...

The saints have their empire, their glory, their victory, their lustre, and want no glory of the flesh or of the mind, with which they have nothing to do, for these add nothing...

_Against those who trusting in the mercy of God live carelessly, without doing good works._--As the two sources of our sins are pride and indolence, God has revealed to us two o...

Of these two scientific infinities, that of greatness is the most obvious to the senses, and therefore few persons have made pretensions to universal knowledge. "I will discours...

That the circumcision commanded was that of the heart. Deut. x. 16; Jeremiah iv. 4. "Be ye circumcised in heart. Cut off the superfluities of your heart, harden not your hearts,...

The world having grown old in these carnal errors, Jesus Christ came at the time foretold, but not with the expected glory, and therefore men did not think it was he. After his...

From this confusion it results that one declares the essence of justice to be the authority of the legislator, another, the convenience of the sovereign, another, existing custo...

The two most ancient books in the world are those of Moses and Job, the one a Jew, the other a Gentile, both of whom regard Jesus Christ as their common centre and object: Moses...

Thence come the various sects of the Stoics and Epicureans, the Dogmatists, Academicians, etc. The Christian religion alone has been able to cure these two distempers, not so as...

The Jesuits have wished to unite God and the world, and have gained only the scorn of God and the world. For, on the side of conscience this is plain, and on the side of the wor...

Hence it comes that play and the society of women, war, and offices of state, are so sought after. Not that there is in these any real happiness, or that any imagine true bliss...

For what man ever was unhappy at not being a king, save a discrowned king? Was Paulus Emilius unhappy at being no longer consul? On the contrary, all men thought him happy in ha...

This inability should serve then only to humiliate reason, which would fain judge of all things, but not to shake our certainty, as if only reason were able to instruct us. Woul...

5. Proofs by the principles laid down by the rabbis that there are two senses, that there are two advents of the Messiah; one in glory, and one in humiliation, according to thei...

But there, you will say, is everything contained in one word. Yes, but that is useless, if not explained, and when we begin to explain it, as soon as the precept is opened which...

If Saint Augustine came at this day, and was as little authorised as his defenders, he would do nothing. God governs his Church well, in that he sent him before with authority.

There is much difference between not being for Jesus Christ, and saying it, and not being for Jesus Christ, yet feigning to be so. The one party can work miracles, not the other...

_Against Mahomet._--The Koran is not more of Mahomet than the Gospel is of Saint Matthew, for it is cited by many authors from age to age. Even its very enemies, Celsus and Porp...

When we do not know the truth of a thing, it is not amiss that there should be a common error to fix the mind of men, as for instance the moon, to which is attributed the change...

_Prophecies._--The seventy weeks of Daniel are equivocal in the term of commencement, because of the terms of the prophecy, and in the term of conclusion because of the differen...

P. 104, l. 14. _The Preacher shows._ The precise thought as Pascal has it here is not easy to find in Ecclesiastes. It is probably a reminiscence of Eccles. viii. 17.

P. 275, l. 14. _accused of many crimes._ Athanasius was accused of rape, of murder, and of sacrilege. He was condemned by the Councils of Tyre, A.D. 335, of Arles, A.D. 353, and...

_THE MISERY OF MAN WITHOUT GOD_ 15 Preface to the First Part 17 Man's Disproportion 19 Diversion 33 The Greatness and Littleness of Man 43 Of the Deceptive Powers of the Imagina...

p. v 'General Introduction 3' inserted in the ToC. p. 23 'flies us' replaced by 'flies from us'. p. 36 'face themselves' replaced by 'face they themselves'. p. 36 'superintendan...