Pascal
The Apologist
The silence of infinite spaces frightened him. So he wagered. On God. On us. On the vertigo of existence.
24
Quotes
19
Themes
0
Era
Life and journey
Child prodigy. At nineteen, he invents the calculator. He left science for God after a mystical experience.
Their thought
The heart has its reasons which reason knows nothing of. rigour and vertigo.
What they leave us
He invented modern French prose. The Pensées are an abandoned construction site.
Major works
Pensées (1670).
The Provincial Letters (1656).
Filter by themes:
24 quotes
“Le cœur a ses raisons que la raison ne connaît point.”
Original quote in French
Suggested translation
“The heart has its reasons of which reason knows nothing.”
— Pensées
“Le silence éternel de ces espaces infinis m'effraie.”
Original quote in French
Suggested translation
“The eternal silence of these infinite spaces frightens me.”
— Pensées
“L'homme n'est qu'un roseau, le plus faible de la nature ; mais c'est un roseau pensant.”
Original quote in French
Suggested translation
“Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature; but he is a thinking reed.”
— Pensées
“Toute la misère des hommes vient d'une seule chose, qui est de ne savoir pas demeurer en repos dans une chambre.”
Original quote in French
Suggested translation
“All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.”
— Pensées
“Le moi est haïssable.”
Original quote in French
Suggested translation
“The self is hateful.”
— Pensées
“Console-toi, tu ne me chercherais pas si tu ne m'avais trouvé.”
Original quote in French
Suggested translation
“Console yourself, you would not seek me if you had not found me.”
— Pensées
“Nous courons sans souci dans le précipice...”
Original quote in French
Suggested translation
“We run heedlessly into the abyss...”
— Pensées
“La justice sans la force est impuissante.”
Original quote in French
Suggested translation
“Justice without force is powerless.”
— Pensées
“Il est dangereux de trop faire voir à l'homme combien il est égal aux bêtes.”
Original quote in French
Suggested translation
“It is dangerous to show man too clearly how much he resembles the beasts.”
— Pensées
“L'homme n'est ni ange ni bête, et le malheur veut que qui veut faire l'ange fait la bête.”
Original quote in French
Suggested translation
“Man is neither angel nor beast, and the misfortune is that whoever wants to play the angel plays the beast.”
— Pensées
“Pesez le gain et la perte... Gagez donc qu'Il est.”
Original quote in French
Suggested translation
“Weigh the gain and the loss... Wager, then, that He is.”
— Pensées
“Quelle vanité que la peinture...”
Original quote in French
Suggested translation
“What vanity is painting...”
— Pensées
“Le dernier acte est sanglant.”
Original quote in French
Suggested translation
“The last act is bloody.”
— Pensées
“J'ai fait cette lettre plus longue que d'habitude, uniquement parce que je n'ai pas eu le temps de la faire plus courte.”
Original quote in French
Suggested translation
“I have made this letter longer than usual, only because I have not had the time to make it shorter.”
— Lettres provinciales
“La justice sans la force est impuissante ; la force sans la justice est tyrannique.”
Original quote in French
Suggested translation
“Justice without strength is powerless; strength without justice is tyrannical.”
— Pensées
“On est d'ordinaire plus facilement convaincu par les raisons qu'on a soi-même trouvées que par celles qui sont venues à l'esprit des autres.”
Original quote in French
Suggested translation
“People are usually more easily convinced by the reasons that they have discovered themselves than by those that have come to the minds of others.”
— Pensées
“Se moquer de la philosophie, c'est vraiment philosopher.”
Original quote in French
Suggested translation
“To mock philosophy is truly to philosophize.”
— Pensées
“Notre nature est dans le mouvement ; le repos absolu est la mort.”
Original quote in French
Suggested translation
“Our nature is in movement; absolute rest is death.”
— Pensées
“La curiosité n'est que vanité. Le plus souvent, on ne veut savoir que pour en parler.”
Original quote in French
Suggested translation
“Curiosity is nothing but vanity. Most often, we want to know only to talk about it.”
— Pensées
“Si tous les hommes savaient ce que les autres disent d'eux, il n'y aurait pas quatre amis dans le monde.”
Original quote in French
Suggested translation
“If all men knew what others say about them, there would not be four friends in the world.”
— Pensées
“Le dernier acte est sanglant, quelque belle que soit la comédie en tout le reste.”
Original quote in French
Suggested translation
“The last act is bloody, no matter how beautiful the rest of the play is.”
— Pensées
“Le coeur a ses raisons que la raison ne connaît point.”
Original quote in French
Suggested translation
“The heart has its reasons which reason knows not.”
— Inconnu
“Quelle vanité que la peinture !”
Original quote in French
Suggested translation
“What vanity painting is!”
— Inconnu
“Le nez de Cléopâtre, s'il eût été plus court, toute la face de la terre aurait changé.”
Original quote in French
Suggested translation
“If Cleopatra's nose had been shorter, the whole face of the earth would have changed.”
— Inconnu
