In a Nutshell

 

Man is equally incapable of seeing the nothingness from which he emerges and the infinity in which he is engulfed.  Pensées (1670)

 

 

Contradiction is not a sign of falsity, nor the lack of contradiction a sign of truth.  Quoted in W H Auden and L Kronenberger, The Viking Book of Aphorisms (New York 1966).

 

 

Those who are accustomed to judge by feeling do not understand the process of reasoning, because they want to comprehend at a glance and are not used to seeking for first principles. Those, on the other hand, who are accustomed to reason from first principles, do not understand matters of feeling at all, because they look for first principles and are unable to comprehend at a glance.  Quoted in W H Auden and L Kronenberger, The Viking Book of Aphorisms (New York 1966).

 

 

Nature is an infinite sphere of which the center is everywhere and the circumference nowhere.  Pensées (1670)

 

 

The sole cause of man’s unhappiness is that he does not know how to stay quietly in his room.  Pensées (1670)

 

 

The last thing one knows when writing a book is what to put first.  Pensées (1670)

 

 

[I feel] engulfed in the infinite immensity of spaces whereof I know nothing, and which know nothing of me, I am terrified The eternal silence of these infinite spaces alarms me.  Pensées (1670)

 

 

What is man in nature? Nothing in relation to the infinite, all in relation to nothing, a mean between nothing and everything.  Pensées (1670)

 

 

Reason is the slow and tortuous method by which these who do not know the truth discover it. The heart has its own reason which reason does not know.  Pensées (1670)

 

 

There is almost nothing right or wrong which does not alter with a change in clime. A shift of three degrees of latitude is enough to overthrow jurisprudence. One’s location on the meridian decides the truth, that or a change in territorial possession. Fundamental laws alter. What is right changes with the times. Strange justice that is bounded by a river or mountain! The truth on this side of the Pyrenees, error on the other.  Pensées (1670)

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Posted on August 28th, 2009 under Quotes • Tags: Blaise Pascal, everything, heart, infinity, nothing, Quotes, reason. • • RSS 2.0 feed • Leave a response, or trackback