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One has followed the other in an endless circle, for it is certain that as man's insight increases so he finds both wretchedness and greatness within himself. In a word man knows he is wretched. Thus he is wretched because he is so, but he is truly great because he knows it.

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
Certain
Insight
Great
Endless
Wretchedness
Men
Thus
Increases
Greatness
Wretched
Increase
Circle
Truly
Followed
Within
Finds
Word
Circles

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Everyone, without exception, is searching for happiness.
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All the dignity of man consists in thought. Thought is therefore by its nature a wonderful and incomparable thing. It must have strange defects to be contemptible. But it has such, so that nothing is more ridiculous. How great it is in its nature! How vile it is in its defects! But what is this thought? How foolish it is!
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Death itself is less painful when it comes upon us unawares than the bare contemplation of it, even when danger is far distant.
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Those who do not hate their own selfishness and regard themselves as more important than the rest of the world are blind because the truth lies elsewhere
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When we wish to correct with advantage, and to show another that he errs, we must notice from what side he views the matter, for on that side it is usually true.
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The last advance of reason is to recognize that it is surpassed by innumerable things it is feeble if it cannot realize that.
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Brave deeds are wasted when hidden.
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We are not satisfied with real life we want to live some imaginary life in the eyes of other people and to seem different from what we actually are.
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We are usually convinced more easily by reasons we have found ourselves than by those which have occurred to others.
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The struggle alone pleases us, not the victory.
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When I have occasionally set myself to consider the different distractions of men, the pains and perils to which they expose themselves I have discovered that all the unhappiness of men arises from one single fact, that they cannot stay quietly in their own chamber.
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All men's miseries derive from not being able to sit in a quiet room alone.
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Now, if the passions had no hold on us, a week and a hundred years would amount to the same.
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He that takes truth for his guide, and duty for his end, may safely trust to God's providence to lead him aright.
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Man lives between the infinitely large and the infinitely small.
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The statements of atheists ought to be perfectly clear of doubt. Now it is not perfectly clear that the soul is material.
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Eloquence is a painting of the thoughts.
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Those who are clever in imagination are far more pleased with themselves than prudent men could reasonably be.
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