Quotes from work
Pensées
The Pensées is a collection of fragments on theology and philosophy written by 17th-century philosopher and mathematician Blaise Pascal. Pascal's religious conversion led him into a life of asceticism, and the Pensées was in many ways his life's work. The Pensées represented Pascal's defense of the Christian religion. The concept of "Pascal's wager" stems from a portion of this work.
“The eternal silence of these infinite spaces alarms me.”
"The Misery of Man Without God": "Man's Disproportion," The Thoughts of Blaise Pascal translated from the Text of M. Auguste Molinier https://books.google.com/books?id=LbkIAAAAQAAJ Tr. C. Kegan Paul (1885)
Source: Pensées
Context: When I consider the short duration of my life, swallowed up in the eternity before and after, the small space which I fill, or even can see, engulfed in the infinite immensity of spaces whereof I know nothing, and which know nothing of me, I am terrified, and wonder that I am here rather than there, for there is no reason why here rather than there, or now rather than then. Who has set me here? By whose order and design have this place and time been destined for me?—Memoria hospitis unius diei prætereuntis.
It is not well to be too much at liberty. It is not well to have all we want.
How many kingdoms know nothing of us!
The eternal silence of these infinite spaces alarms me.
“The last function of reason is to recognize that there are an infinity of things which surpass it.”
Variant: Reason's last step is the recognition that there are an infinite number of things which are beyond it.
Source: Pensées
“To ridicule philosophy is really to philosophize.”
Variant: To make light of philosophy is to be a true philosopher.
Source: Pensées
Variant: People are generally better persuaded by the reasons which they have themselves discovered than by those which have come into the mind of others.
Source: Pensees
