“It is a natural illness of man to think that he possesses the truth directly…”

—  Blaise Pascal

C'est une maladie naturelle à l'homme de croire qu'il possède la vérité directement…
Section I
Variant translation: It is man's natural sickness to believe that he possesses the Truth.
On the Spirit of Geometry

Original

C'est une maladie naturelle à l'homme de croire qu'il possède la vérité directement…

On the Spirit of Geometry

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Sept. 29, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "It is a natural illness of man to think that he possesses the truth directly…" by Blaise Pascal?
Blaise Pascal photo
Blaise Pascal 144
French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer, and Chri… 1623–1662

Related quotes

Julien Offray de La Mettrie photo

“It is not enough for a wise man to study nature and truth; he should dare state truth for the benefit of the few who are willing and able to think.”

Julien Offray de La Mettrie book Man a Machine

Man a Machine (1747), p. 85

John Locke photo

“It is one thing to show a man that he is in error, and another to put him in possession of the truth.”

John Locke book An Essay Concerning Human Understanding

Book IV, Ch. 7, sec. 11
An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689)

Ayn Rand photo

“Poverty, ignorance, illness and other problems of that kind are not metaphysical emergencies. By the metaphysical nature of man and of existence, man has to maintain his life by his own effort; the values he needs—such as wealth or knowledge—are not given to him automatically, as a gift of nature, but have to be discovered and achieved by his own thinking and work.”

Ayn Rand book The Virtue of Selfishness

The Virtue of Selfishness (1964)

“Better a man's own duty, though ill-done, than another's duty well-performed; if a man do the duty his own nature bids him, he incurs no stain.”

W. Douglas P. Hill (1884–1962) British Indologist

Source: The Bhagavadgītā (1973), p. 209. (47.)

Thomas Browne photo

“A man may be in as just possession of Truth as of a City, and yet be forced to surrender.”

Thomas Browne book Religio Medici

Section 6
Religio Medici (1643), Part I

Rumi photo

“When you see anyone complaining
of such and such a person's ill-nature and bad temper,
know that the complainant is bad-tempered,
forasmuch as he speaks ill of that bad-tempered person,
because he alone is good-tempered who is quietly forbearing
towards the bad-tempered and ill-natured.”

Rumi (1207–1273) Iranian poet

IV, 771-4
Jewels of Remembrance (1996)

Robert Sheckley photo

““Time devours our feeble mortality, leaving us with but the sour residue of memory.”
Marvin nodded. “Yet this ineffable and ungraspable quantity,” he replied, “this time which no man may possess, is in truth our only possession.””

Robert Sheckley book Mindswap

Source: Mindswap (1966), Chapter 24 (p. 110)

Pierre-Auguste Renoir photo

“You haven't time to think about the composition. In working directly from nature, the painter ends up by simply aiming at an effect, and not composing the picture at all; and he soon becomes monotonous.”

Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841–1919) French painter and sculptor

(before 1880) As quoted in Renoir – his life and work, Francois Fosca, Book Club Associates /Thames and Hudson Ltd, London 1975, p. 176
undated quotes, Renoir – his life and work, 1975

Kofi Annan photo

“The idea that there is one people in possession of the truth, one answer to the world’s ills, or one solution to humanity’s needs, has done untold harm throughout history — especially in the last century.”

Kofi Annan (1938–2018) 7th Secretary-General of the United Nations

Nobel lecture (2001)
Context: The idea that there is one people in possession of the truth, one answer to the world’s ills, or one solution to humanity’s needs, has done untold harm throughout history — especially in the last century. Today, however, even amidst continuing ethnic conflict around the world, there is a growing understanding that human diversity is both the reality that makes dialogue necessary, and the very basis for that dialogue.
We understand, as never before, that each of us is fully worthy of the respect and dignity essential to our common humanity. We recognize that we are the products of many cultures, traditions and memories; that mutual respect allows us to study and learn from other cultures; and that we gain strength by combining the foreign with the familiar.

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing photo

“The true value of a man is not determined by his possession, supposed or real, of Truth, but rather by his sincere exertion to get to the Truth.”

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729–1781) writer, philosopher, publicist, and art critic

Anti-Goeze (1778), as quoted in God Is Not Great (2007), by Christopher Hitchens , Ch. 19
Context: The true value of a man is not determined by his possession, supposed or real, of Truth, but rather by his sincere exertion to get to the Truth. It is not possession of the Truth, but rather the pursuit of Truth by which he extends his powers and in which his ever-growing perfectibility is to be found. Possession makes one passive, indolent, and proud. If God were to hold all Truth concealed in his right hand, and in his left only the steady and diligent drive for Truth, albeit with the proviso that I would always and forever err in the process, and offer me the choice, I would with all humility take the left hand, and say: Father, I will take this one—the pure Truth is for You alone.

Related topics