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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!

Blaise Pascal

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Blaise Pascal
Age: 39 †
Born: 1623
Born: June 19
Died: 1662
Died: August 19
French Moralist
Mathematician
Philosopher
Physicist
Statistician
Theologian
Writer
Clarmont-Ferrand
Pascal
Louis de Montalte
Amos Dettonville
Dettonville
Paskal Blez
Many
Certainty
Must
Save
Things
Sea
Battle
Journey
Ought
Voyages
Religion
Battles
Certain
Uncertainty

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Man is so made that if he is told often enough that he is a fool he believes it.
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It is a dangerous experiment to call in gratitude as an ally to love. Love is a debt which inclination always pays, obligation never.
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Unable to make what is just strong, we have made what is strong just.
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All men naturally hate each other. We have used concupiscence as best we can to make it serve the common good, but this is mere sham and a false image of charity, for essentially it is just hate.
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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.
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(Man,) the glory and the scandal of the universe.
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Imagination decides everything.
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Seeing too much to deny and too little to be sure, I am in a state to be pitied.
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All mankind's unhappiness derives from one thing: his inability to know how to remain in repose in one room.
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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.
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Force and not opinion is the queen of the world but it is opinion that uses the force. [Fr., La force est la reine du monde, et non pas l'opinion mais l'opinion est celle qui use de la force.]
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And is it not obvious that, just as it is a crime to disturb the peace when truth reigns, it is also a crime to remain at peace when the truth is being destroyed?
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We make an idol of truth itself for truth apart from charity is not God, but His image and idol, which we must neither love nor worship.
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Man's greatness lies in his power of thought.
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If a man loves a woman for her beauty, does he love her? No for the smallpox, which destroys her beauty without killing her, causes his love to cease. And if any one loves me for my judgment or my memory, does he really love me? No for I can lose these qualities without ceasing to be.
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We are so presumptuous that we should like to be known all over the world, even by people who will only come when we are no more. Such is our vanity that the good opinion of half a dozen of the people around us gives us pleasure and satisfaction.
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The last thing we decide in writing a book is what to put first.
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To ridicule philosophy is truly philosophical. [Fr., Se moquer de la philosophie c'est vraiment philosophe.]
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St. Augustine teaches us that there is in each man a Serpent, an Eve, and an Adam. Our senses and natural propensities are the Serpent the excitable desire is the Eve and reason is the Adam. Our nature tempts us perpetually criminal desire is often excited but sin is not completed till reason consents.
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