Blaise Pascal

The heart has its reasons of which reason knows nothing.

Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature; but he is a thinking reed.

All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.

Men blaspheme what they do not know.

If we submit everything to reason, our religion will have nothing in it mysterious or supernatural.

The eternal silence of these infinite spaces frightens me.

Justice without force is powerless; force without justice is tyrannical.

We are born into the world with a sense of the absurd.

The last thing one discovers in writing a book is what to put first.

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

Truth is so obscure in these times, and falsehood so established, that, unless we love the truth, we cannot know it.

Curiosity is only vanity. Most frequently one wishes to know only to talk.

Man is full of needs: he loves only those who can satisfy them all.

The greater the mind, the more it is capable of complex thoughts.

The present is never our end. The past and present are our means, the future alone is our end.

It is not good to be too free. It is not good to have all one wants.

Man is so great that his greatness is known even in his knowing himself to be miserable.

We make idols of truth itself; for truth apart from charity is not God, but his image and idol, which we must neither love nor worship.

The more I see of men, the more I love my dog.

The only good thing in life is to be able to choose one's friends.