Blaise Pascal

“It is necessary to have regard to the person whom we wish to persuade, of whom we must know the mind and the heart, what principles he acknowledges, what things he loves; and then observe in the thing in question what affinity it has with the acknowledged principles, or with the objects so delightful by the pleasure which they give him.”

“We sail within a vast sphere, ever drifting in uncertainty, driven from end to end.”

“The art of persuasion consists as much in that of pleasing as in that of convincing, so much more are men governed by caprice than by reason!”

“There are two kinds of people one can call reasonable: those who serve God with all their heart because they know him, and those who seek him with all their heart because they do not know him.”

“The principles of pleasure are not firm and stable. They are different in all mankind, and variable in every particular with such a diversity that there is no man more different from another than from himself at different times.”

“The least movement is of importance to all nature. The entire ocean is affected by a pebble.”

“There are hardly any truths upon which we always remain agreed, and still fewer objects of pleasure which we do not change every hour, I do not know whether there is a means of giving fixed rules for adapting discourse to the inconstancy of our caprices.”

“Too much and too little wine. Give him none, he cannot find truth; give him too much, the same.”

“This art, which I call the art of persuading, and which, properly speaking, is simply the process of perfect methodical proofs, consists of three essential parts: of defining the terms of which we should avail ourselves by clear definitions, of proposing principles of evident axioms to prove the thing in question; and of always mentally substituting in the demonstrations the definition in the place of the thing defined.”

“The strength of a man's virtue should not be measured by his special exertions, but by his habitual acts.”

“The last thing one discovers in composing a work is what to put first.”

“If we do not secure the foundation, we cannot secure the edifice.”

“Justice and power must be brought together, so that whatever is just may be powerful, and whatever is powerful may be just.”

“A few rules include all that is necessary for the perfection of the definitions, the axioms, and the demonstrations, and consequently of the entire method of the geometrical proofs of the art of persuading.”

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

“Rules for Definitions. I. Not to undertake to define any of the things so well known of themselves that the clearer terms cannot be had to explain them. II. Not to leave any terms that are at all obscure or ambiguous without definition. III. Not to employ in the definition of terms any words but such as are perfectly known or already explained.”

“It is the fight alone that pleases us, not the victory.”

“Rules for Axioms. I. Not to omit any necessary principle without asking whether it is admittied, however clear and evident it may be. II. Not to demand, in axioms, any but things that are perfectly evident in themselves.”

“It is the heart which perceives God and not the reason. That is what faith is: God perceived by the heart, not by the reason.”

“Rules for Demonstrations. I. Not to undertake to demonstrate any thing that is so evident of itself that nothing can be given that is clearer to prove it. II. To prove all propositions at all obscure, and to employ in their proof only very evident maxims or propositions already admitted or demonstrated. III. To always mentally substitute definitions in the place of things defined, in order not to be misled by the ambiguity of terms which have been restricted by definitions.”

“Man's greatness lies in his power of thought.”

“These eight rules [above] contain all the precepts for solid and immutable proofs.”

“Faith embraces many truths which seem to contradict each other.”

“Five [of the above] rules are of absolute necessity, and cannot be dispensed with without essential defect and often without error.”

“Noble deeds that are concealed are most esteemed.”

“Rules necessary for definitions. Not to leave any terms at all obscure or ambiguous without definition; Not to employ in definitions any but terms perfectly known or already explained.”

“Our nature consists in motion; complete rest is death.”

“It is the heart which perceives God and not the reason. That is what faith is: God perceived by the heart, not by the reason.”

“Rules necessary for axioms. Not to demand in axioms any but things perfectly evident.”

“Little things console us because little things afflict us.”

“Rules necessary for demonstrations. To prove all propositions, and to employ nothing for their proof but axioms fully evident of themselves, or propositions already demonstrated or admitted; Never to take advantage of the ambiguity of terms by failing mentally to substitute definitions that restrict or explain them.”

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

“Noble deeds that are concealed are most esteemed.”

“These five rules [above] form all that is necessary to render proofs convincing, immutable, and to say all, geometrical; and the eight rules together render them even more perfect.”

“Jesus is the God whom we can approach without pride and before whom we can humble ourselves without despair.”

“It is necessary to show that there is nothing so little known [as the above rules], nothing more difficult to practice, or nothing more useful and universal.”

“I have discovered that all human evil comes from this, man's being unable to sit still in a room.”

“As to the objection that these rules are common in the world, that it is necessary to define every thing and to prove every thing, and that logicians themselves have placed them among their art, I would that the thing were true and that it were so well known... But so little is this the case, that, geometricians alone excepted, who are so few in number that they are a single in a whole nation and long periods of time, we see no others that know it.”

“The sensitivity of men to small matters, and their indifference to great ones, indicates a strange inversion.”

“If they have entered into the spirit if these rules, and if the rules have made sufficient impression on them to become rooted and established in their minds, they will feel how much difference there is between what is said here and what a few logicians may perhaps have written by chance approximating to it in a few passages of their works.”

“The last proceeding of reason is to recognize that there is an infinity of things which are beyond it. There is nothing so conformable to reason as this disavowal of reason.”

“One man will say a thing of himself without comprehending its excellence, in which another will discern a marvelous series of conclusions, which makes us affirm that it is no longer the same expression, and that he is no more indebted for it to the one from whom he has learned it, than a beautiful tree belongs to the one who cast the seed, without thinking of it, or knowing it, into the fruitful soil which caused its growth by its own fertility.”

“Concupiscence and force are the source of all our actions; concupiscence causes voluntary actions, force involuntary ones.”

“Logic has borrowed, perhaps, the rules of geometry, without comprehending their force... it does not thence follow that they have entered into the spirit of geometry, and I should be greatly averse... to placing them on a level with that science that teaches the true method of directing reason.”

“The supreme function of reason is to show man that some things are beyond reason.”

“The method of not erring is sought by all the world. The logicians profess to guide it, the geometricians alone attain it, and apart from science, and the imitations of it, there are no true demonstrations.”

“There are some who speak well and write badly. For the place and the audience warm them, and draw from their minds more than they think of without that warmth.”

“Nothing is more common than good things: the point in question is only to discriminate them; and it is certain that they are all natural and within our reach and even known to all mankind.”

“The only shame is to have none.”

“It is not among extraordinary and fantastic things that excellence is to be found, of whatever kind it may be. We rise to attain it and become removed from it: it is oftenest necessary to stoop for it.”

“Men despise religion. They hate it and are afraid it may be true.”

“The best books are those, which those who read them believe they themselves could have written.”

“Between us and heaven or hell there is only life, which is the frailest thing in the world.”

“Nature, which alone is good, is wholly familiar and common.”

“Faith indeed tells what the senses do not tell, but not the contrary of what they see. It is above them and not contrary to them.”

“I make no doubt... that these rules are simple, artless, and natural.”

“Imagination disposes of everything; it creates beauty, justice, and happiness, which are everything in this world.”

“The mind must not be forced; artificial and constrained manners fill it with foolish presumption, through unnatural elevation and vain and ridiculous inflation, instead of solid and vigorous nutriment.”

“The charm of fame is so great that we like every object to which it is attached, even death.”

“One of the principal reasons that diverts those who are entering upon this knowledge so much from the true path which they should follow, is the fancy that they take at the outset that good things are inaccessible, giving them the name great, lofty, elevated, sublime. This destroys everything. I would call them low, common, familiar: these names suit it better; I hate such inflated expressions.”

“Desire and force between them are responsible for all our actions; desire causes our voluntary acts, force our involuntary.”

“Imagination decides everything.”

“The only good thing for men therefore is to be diverted from thinking of what they are, either by some occupation which takes their mind off it, or by some novel and agreeable passion which keeps them busy, like gambling, hunting, some absorbing show, in short by what is called diversion.”

“The self is hateful.”

“Through space the universe grasps me and swallows me up like a speck; through thought I grasp it.”

“Reason commands us far more imperiously than a master; for in disobeying the one we are unfortunate, and in disobeying the other we are fools.”

“Man's true nature being lost, everything becomes his nature; as, his true good being lost, everything becomes his good.”

“The immortality of the soul is a matter which is of so great consequence to us and which touches us so profoundly that we must have lost all feeling to be indifferent about it.”

“Justice is what is established; and thus all our established laws will necessarily be regarded as just without examination, since they are established.”

“The knowledge of God is very far from the love of Him.”

“We conceal it from ourselves in vain - we must always love something. In those matters seemingly removed from love, the feeling is secretly to be found, and man cannot possibly live for a moment without it.”

“I would rather live my life as if there is a God and die to find out there isn't, than live as if there isn't and to die to find out that there is.”

“Happiness is neither without us nor within us. It is in God, both without us and within us.”

“When we are in love we seem to ourselves quite different from what we were before.”

“He that takes truth for his guide, and duty for his end, may safely trust to God's providence to lead him aright.”

“One must know oneself. If this does not serve to discover truth, it at least serves as a rule of life and there is nothing better.”

“The weather and my mood have little connection. I have my foggy and my fine days within me; my prosperity or misfortune has little to do with the matter.”

“Imagination disposes of everything; it creates beauty, justice, and happiness, which are everything in this world.”

“If our condition were truly happy, we would not seek diversion from it in order to make ourselves happy.”

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

“The present letter is a very long one, simply because I had no leisure to make it shorter.”

“There are only two kinds of men: the righteous who think they are sinners and the sinners who think they are righteous.”

“Truly it is an evil to be full of faults; but it is a still greater evil to be full of them and to be unwilling to recognize them, since that is to add the further fault of a voluntary illusion.”

“Vanity of science. Knowledge of physical science will not console me for ignorance of morality in time of affliction, but knowledge of morality will always console me for ignorance of physical science.”

“Habit is a second nature that destroys the first. But what is nature? Why is habit not natural? I am very much afraid that nature itself is only a first habit, just as habit is a second nature.”

“We are only falsehood, duplicity, contradiction; we both conceal and disguise ourselves from ourselves.”

“That we must love one God only is a thing so evident that it does not require miracles to prove it.”

“The consciousness of the falsity of present pleasures, and the ignorance of the vanity of absent pleasures, cause inconstancy.”

“Chance gives rise to thoughts, and chance removes them; no art can keep or acquire them.”

“Eloquence is a painting of the thoughts.”

“Even those who write against fame wish for the fame of having written well, and those who read their works desire the fame of having read them.”

“We only consult the ear because the heart is wanting.”

“Imagination disposes of everything; it creates beauty, justice, and happiness, which are everything in this world.”

“Men blaspheme what they do not know.”

“Imagination disposes of everything; it creates beauty, justice, and happiness, which are everything in this world.”

“Faith certainly tells us what the senses do not, but not the contrary of what they see; it is above, not against them.”

“Thus so wretched is man that he would weary even without any cause for weariness... and so frivolous is he that, though full of a thousand reasons for weariness, the least thing, such as playing billiards or hitting a ball, is sufficient enough to amuse him.”

“If you gain, you gain all. If you lose, you lose nothing. Wager then, without hesitation, that He exists.”

“I maintain that, if everyone knew what others said about him, there would not be four friends in the world.”

“The knowledge of God is very far from the love of Him.”

“Atheism shows strength of mind, but only to a certain degree.”

“A trifle consoles us, for a trifle distresses us.”

“He that takes truth for his guide, and duty for his end, may safely trust to God's providence to lead him aright”

“We run carelessly to the precipice, after we have put something before us to prevent us seeing it.”

“The finite is annihilated in the presence of the infinite, and becomes a pure nothing. So our spirit before God, so our justice before divine justice.”

“Do you wish people to think well of you? Don't speak well of yourself.”

“We like security: we like the pope to be infallible in matters of faith, and grave doctors to be so in moral questions so that we can feel reassured.”

“Contradiction is not a sign of falsity, nor the lack of contradiction a sign of truth.”

“I can well conceive a man without hands, feet, head. But I cannot conceive man without thought; he would be a stone or a brute.”

“Love has reasons which reason cannot understand.”

“People are usually more convinced by reasons they discovered themselves than by those found by others.”

“In each action we must look beyond the action at our past, present, and future state, and at others whom it affects, and see the relations of all those things. And then we shall be very cautious.”

“Continuous eloquence wearies. Grandeur must be abandoned to be appreciated. Continuity in everything is unpleasant. Cold is agreeable, that we may get warm.”

“The gospel to me is simply irresistible.”

“Nothing is so intolerable to man as being fully at rest, without a passion, without business, without entertainment, without care.”

“Earnestness is enthusiasm tempered by reason.”

“Justice and truth are too such subtle points that our tools are too blunt to touch them accurately.”

“Small minds are concerned with the extraordinary, great minds with the ordinary.”

“All men's miseries derive from not being able to sit in a quiet room alone.”

“It is incomprehensible that God should exist, and it is incomprehensible that he should not exist.”

“It is natural for the mind to believe and for the will to love; so that, for want of true objects, they must attach themselves to false.”

“It is not good to be too free. It is not good to have everything one wants.”

“When we see a natural style, we are astonished and charmed; for we expected to see an author, and we find a person.”

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

“The struggle alone pleases us, not the victory.”

“The greater intellect one has, the more originality one finds in men. Ordinary persons find no difference between men.”

“To have no time for philosophy is to be a true philosopher.”

“Time heals griefs and quarrels, for we change and are no longer the same persons. Neither the offender nor the offended are any more themselves.”

“Nothing fortifies scepticism more than the fact that there are some who are not sceptics; if all were so, they would be wrong.”

“Vanity is but the surface.”

“Custom is our nature. What are our natural principles but principles of custom?”

“Men often take their imagination for their heart; and they believe they are converted as soon as they think of being converted.”

“We never love a person, but only qualities.”

“If man made himself the first object of study, he would see how incapable he is of going further. How can a part know the whole?”

“Evil is easy, and has infinite forms.”

“Our soul is cast into a body, where it finds number, time, dimension. Thereupon it reasons, and calls this nature necessity, and can believe nothing else.”

“It is good to be tired and wearied by the futile search after the true good, that we may stretch out our arms to the Redeemer.”

“Time heals griefs and quarrels, for we change and are no longer the same persons. Neither the offender nor the offended are any more themselves.”

“As men are not able to fight against death, misery, ignorance, they have taken it into their heads, in order to be happy, not to think of them at all.”

“There are two kinds of people one can call reasonable: those who serve God with all their heart because they know him, and those who seek him with all their heart because they do not know him.”

“There are only two kinds of men: the righteous who think they are sinners and the sinners who think they are righteous.”

“It is the heart which perceives God and not the reason. That is what faith is: God perceived by the heart, not by the reason.”

“We never keep to the present. We recall the past; we anticipate the future as if we found it too slow in coming and were trying to hurry it up, or we recall the past as if to stay its too rapid flight. We are so unwise that we wander about in times that do not belong to us, and do not think of the only one that does; so vain that we dream of times that are not and blindly flee the only one that is. The fact is that the present usually hurts. We thrust it out of sight because it distresses us, and if we find it enjoyable, we are sorry to see it slip away. We try to give it the support of the future, and think how we are going to arrange things over which we have no control for a time we can never be sure of reaching.”

“In each action we must look beyond the action at our past, present, and future state, and at others whom it affects, and see the relations of all those things. And then we shall be very cautious.”

“If all men knew what others say of them, there would not be four friends in the world.”

“The struggle alone pleases us, not the victory.”

“Two things control men's nature, instinct and experience.”

“Chance gives rise to thoughts, and chance removes them; no art can keep or acquire them.”

“In faith there is enough light for those who want to believe and enough shadows to blind those who don't.”

“All men's miseries derive from not being able to sit in a quiet room alone.”

“We like security: we like the pope to be infallible in matters of faith, and grave doctors to be so in moral questions so that we can feel reassured.”

“Two things control men's nature, instinct and experience.”

“It is the fight alone that pleases us, not the victory.”

“It is man's natural sickness to believe that he possesses the truth.”

“Men are so necessarily mad, that not to be mad would amount to another form of madness.”

“Since we cannot know all that there is to be known about anything, we ought to know a little about everything.”

“Imagination decides everything.”

“It is not good to be too free. It is not good to have everything one wants.”

“Each man is everything to himself, for with his death everything is dead for him. That is why each of us thinks he is everything to everyone. We must not judge nature by ourselves, but by its own standards.”

“Being unable to cure death, wretchedness and ignorance, men have decided, in order to be happy, not to think about such things.”

“Nothing is so intolerable to man as being fully at rest, without a passion, without business, without entertainment, without care.”

“Men often take their imagination for their heart; and they believe they are converted as soon as they think of being converted.”

“Faith embraces many truths which seem to contradict each other.”

“Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.”

“Small minds are concerned with the extraordinary, great minds with the ordinary.”

“All men's miseries derive from not being able to sit in a quiet room alone.”

“The heart has its reasons of which reason knows nothing.”

“Faith is different from proof; the latter is human, the former is a Gift from God.”

“In faith there is enough light for those who want to believe and enough shadows to blind those who don't.”

“Love has reasons which reason cannot understand.”

“Eloquence is a painting of the thoughts.”

“I have made this letter longer than usual, only because I have not had the time to make it shorter.”

“Faith is different from proof; the latter is human, the former is a Gift from God.”

“Words differently arranged have a different meaning, and meanings differently arranged have different effects.”

“Human beings must be known to be loved; but Divine beings must be loved to be known.”

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

“When we are in love we seem to ourselves quite different from what we were before.”

“Two things control men's nature, instinct and experience.”

“For as old age is that period of life most remote from infancy, who does not see that old age in this universal man ought not to be sought in the times nearest his birth, but in those most remote from it?”

“All of our reasoning ends in surrender to feeling.”

“People almost invariably arrive at their beliefs not on the basis of proof but on the basis of what they find attractive.”

“The greatness of man is great in that he knows himself to be wretched. A tree does not know itself to be wretched.”

“Mahomet established a religion by putting his enemies to death; Jesus Christ, by commanding his followers to lay down their own lives.”

“Faith is different from proof; the latter is human, the former is a Gift from God.”

“In order to enter into a real knowledge of your condition, consider it in this image: A man was cast by a tempest upon an unknown island, the inhabitants of which were in trouble to find their king, who was lost; and having a strong resemblance both in form and face to this king, he was taken for him, and acknowledged in this capacity by all the people.”

“The last act is bloody, however pleasant all the rest of the play is: a little earth is thrown at last upon our head, and that is the end forever.”

“Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.”

“Thus he had a double thought: the one by which he acted as king, the other by which he recognized his true state, and that it was accident alone that had placed him in his present condition.”

“Since we cannot know all that there is to be known about anything, we ought to know a little about everything.”

“Do not imagine that it is less an accident by which you find yourself master of the wealth which you possess, than that by which this man found himself king.”

“Men are so necessarily mad, that not to be mad would amount to another form of madness.”

“If it had pleased them [the legislators] to order that this wealth, after having been possessed by fathers during their life, should return to the republic after their death, you would have no reason to complain of it.”

“All human evil comes from a single cause, man's inability to sit still in a room.”

“The whole title by which you possess your property, is not a title of nature but of a human institution.”

“There are only two kinds of men: the righteous who think they are sinners and the sinners who think they are righteous.”

“This right which you have, is not founded any more than his upon any quality or any merit in yourself which renders you worthy of it. Your soul and your body are, of themselves, indifferent to the state of boatman or that of duke; and there is no natural bond that attaches them to one condition rather than to another.”

“Nothing gives rest but the sincere search for truth.”

“If you act externally with men in conformity with your rank, you should recognize, by a more secret but truer thought, that you have nothing naturally superior to them.”

“People are generally better persuaded by the reasons which they have themselves discovered than by those which have come in to the mind of others.”

“If the public thought elevates you above the generality of men, let the other humble you, and hold you in a perfect equality with all mankind, for this is your natural condition.”

“Through space the universe encompasses and swallows me up like an atom; through thought I comprehend the world.”

“Do not mistake yourself by believing that your being has something in it more exalted than that of others.”

“You always admire what you really don't understand.”

“What would you say of that man who was made king by the error of the people, if he had so far forgotten his natural condition as to imagine that this kingdom was due to him, that he deserved it, and that it belonged to him of right? You would marvel at his stupidity and folly. But is there less in the people of rank who live in so strange a forgetfulness of their natural condition?”

“If all men knew what others say of them, there would not be four friends in the world.”

“The heart has its reasons which reason knows nothing of... We know the truth not only by the reason, but by the heart.”

“All the excesses, all the violence, and all the vanity of great men, come from the fact that they know not what they are: it being difficult for those who regard themselves at heart as equal with all men... For this it is necessary for one to forget himself, and to believe that he has some real excellence above them, in which consists this illusion that I am endeavoring to discover to you.”

“We know the truth, not only by the reason, but also by the heart.”

“If, being duke and peer, you would not be contented with my standing uncovered before you, but should also wish that I should esteem you, I should ask you to show me the qualities that merit my esteem. If you did this, you would gain it, and I could not refuse it to you with justice; but if you did not do it, you would be unjust to demand it of me; and assuredly you would not succeed, were you the greatest prince in the world.”

“Happiness is neither without us nor within us. It is in God, both without us and within us.”

“God is surrounded with people full of love who demand of him the benefits of love which are in his power: thus he is properly the king of love.”

“If we must not act save on a certainty, we ought not to act on religion, for it is not certain. But how many things we do on an uncertainty, sea voyages, battles!”

“You are in the same manner surrounded with a small circle of persons... full of desire. They demand of you the benefits of desire... You are therefore properly the king of desire. ...equal in this to the greatest kings of the earth... It is desire that constitutes their power; that is, the possession of things that men covet.”

“We view things not only from different sides, but with different eyes; we have no wish to find them alike.”

“It is not your strength and your natural power that subjects all these people to you. Do not pretend then to rule them by force or to treat them with harshness. Satisfy their reasonable desires; alleviate their necessities; let your pleasure consist in being beneficent; advance them as much as you can, and you will act like the true king of desire.”

“If we examine our thoughts, we shall find them always occupied with the past and the future.”

“There are some men who expose themselves to damnation so foolishly by avarice, by brutality, by debauches, by violence, by excesses, by blasphemies! ...it is always a great folly for a man to expose himself to damnation... He must despise desire and its kingdom, and aspire to that kingdom of love in which all the subjects breathe nothing but love, and desire nothing but the benefits of love.”

“As men are not able to fight against death, misery, ignorance, they have taken it into their heads, in order to be happy, not to think of them at all.”

“If it is pleasing to observe in nature her desire to paint God in all his works, in which we see some traces of him because they are his images, how much more just is it to consider in the productions of minds the efforts which they make to imitate the essential truth, even in shunning it, and to remark wherein they attain it and wherein they wander from it, as I have endeavored to do in this study.”

“Law, without force, is impotent.”

“No one is ignorant that there are two avenues by which opinions are received into the soul, which are its two principal powers: the understanding and the will.”

“Vanity of science. Knowledge of physical science will not console me for ignorance of morality in time of affliction, but knowledge of morality will always console me for ignorance of physical science.”

“All men are almost led to believe not of proof, but by attraction. This way is base, ignoble, and irrelevant; every one therefore disavows it. Each one professes to believe and even to love nothing but what he knows to be worthy of belief and love.”

“Nothing is as approved as mediocrity, the majority has established it and it fixes its fangs on whatever gets beyond it either way.”

“I do not speak here of divine truths... because they are infinitely superior to nature: God alone can place them in the soul... I know that he has desired that they should enter from the heart into the mind, and not from the mind into the heart, to humiliate that proud power of reasoning that pretends to the right to be the judge of the things that the will chooses; and to cure this infirm will which is wholly corrupted by its filthy attachments.”

“I would rather live my life as if there is a God and die to find out there isn't, than live as if there isn't and to die to find out that there is.”

“Whilst in speaking of human things, we say that it is necessary to know them before we can love them...the saints on the contrary say in speaking of divine things that it is necessary to love them in order to know them, and that we only enter truth through charity.”

“Belief is a wise wager. Granted that faith cannot be proved, what harm will come to you if you gamble on its truth and it proves false? If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager, then, without hesitation, that He exists.”

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

“They [men] have corrupted this [God's supernatural] order by making profane things what they should make of holy things, because in fact, we believe scarcely any thing except which pleases us.”

“Small minds are concerned with the extraordinary, great minds with the ordinary.”

“God only pours out his light into the mind after having subdued the rebellion of the will by an altogether heavenly gentleness which charms and wins it.”

“Kind words do not cost much. Yet they accomplish much.”

“Of the truths within our reach... the mind and the heart are as doors by which they are received into the soul, but... few enter by the mind, whilst they are brought in crowds by the rash caprices of the will, without the council of reason.”

“Belief is a wise wager. Granted that faith cannot be proved, what harm will come to you if you gamble on its truth and it proves false? If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager, then, without hesitation, that He exists.”

“Several particular maxims... are as powerful, although false, in carrying away belief, as those the most true.”

“Can anything be stupider than that a man has the right to kill me because he lives on the other side of a river and his ruler has a quarrel with mine, though I have not quarrelled with him?”

“As soon as the soul has been made to perceive that a thing can conduct it to that which it loves supremely, it must inevitably embrace it with joy.”

“Nature is an infinite sphere of which the center is everywhere and the circumference nowhere.”

“A doubtful balance is made between truth and pleasure, and... the knowledge of one and the feeling of the other stir up a combat the success of which is very uncertain, since, in order to judge of it, it would be necessary to know all that passes in the innermost spirit of the man, of which man himself is scarcely ever conscious.”

“The eternal silence of these infinite spaces frightens me.”