“I lay it down as a fact that if all men knew what others say of them, there would not be four friends in the world.”

— Blaise Pascal

Last update Sept. 29, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "I lay it down as a fact that if all men knew what others say of them, there would not be four friends in the world." by Blaise Pascal?

Blaise Pascal 144

French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer, and Chri… 1623–1662

Related quotes

“I'd like to say that I knew this would happen, that it's all part of the plan for world domination.”

Linus Torvalds (1969) Finnish-American software engineer and hacker

[Open Sources: Voices from the Open Source Revolution, The Linux Edge, http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/opensources/book/linus.html, 2006-08-28, 1-56592-582-3, 1999, O'Reilly & Associates, DiBona, C]
1990s, 1995-99

“I desire so to conduct the affairs of this administration that if at the end, when I come to lay down the reins of power, I have lost every other friend on earth, I shall at least have one friend left, and that friend shall be down inside of me.”

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States

Source: Reply to Missouri Committee of Seventy (30 September 1864)

“That a man be willing, when others are so too, as farre-forth, as for Peace, and defence of himself he shall think it necessary, to lay down this right to all things; and be contented with so much liberty against other men, as he would allow other men against himself.”

Thomas Hobbes book Leviathan

The First Part, Chapter 14, p. 64-65
Leviathan (1651)

“Few friendships would survive if each one knew what his friend says of him behind his back”

Blaise Pascal (1623–1662) French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer, and Christian philosopher

“The world cannot utterly ignore men who lay down their lives for any cause.”

Robert Hunter (author) (1874–1942) American sociologist, author, golf course architect

Source: Violence and the Labor Movement (1914), p. 90
Context: The world cannot utterly ignore men who lay down their lives for any cause. Men may write and agitate, they may scream never so shrilly about the wrongs of the world, but when they go forth to fight single-handed and to die for what they preach, they have at least earned the right to demand of society an inquiry.