Pascal Quotes

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VirginiaHuguenot

Puritanboard Librarian
* The heart has its reasons which reason knows nothing of.

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

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

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

* Had Cleopatra's nose been shorter, the whole face of the world would have changed.

* 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.

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

* Law, without force, is impotent.

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

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

(Blaise Pascal, French Jansenist theologian, philosopher, mathematician, physicist & author, 1623 - 1662)
 
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Originally posted by VirginiaHuguenot
* I have discovered that all human evil comes from this, man's being unable to sit still in a room. --- Blaise Pascal

He must have know my 2 1/2 year old grandson! :banana: :lol:
 
Originally posted by VirginiaHuguenot
* I have discovered that all human evil comes from this, man's being unable to sit still in a room. --- Blaise Pascal

He must have know my 2 1/2 year old grandson!

Grandson Phillip ----> :banana:

:lol:
 
Originally posted by Ivan
Originally posted by VirginiaHuguenot
* Had Cleopatra's nose been shorter, the whole face of the world would have changed.

Excuse me....HUH?!

She was supposed to have been beautiful, not quite like Helen of Troy, whose face "launched a thousand ships," but sufficient to captivate Julius Caesar and Marc Antony.

The appeal of the real Cleopatra, if we are to believe Plutarch, lay in the partnership of her mind, her manner, and her mellifluous voice, though Guy Weill Goudchaux's witty essay "Was Cleopatra Beautiful?" presents a strong case for the queen's physiognomy by drawing on Agnolo Bronzino's stunning portrait of the hatchet-faced sixteenth-century Florentine poetess Laura Battiferri. As Goudchaux notes: "Many know the remark of Pascal, who also had quite a prominent nose: `If Cleopatra's nose were shorter, the shape of the world would have been different.' ... One has to understand Pascal's warning; that if the queen's nose had been shorter, the queen would have lacked the necessary strength of character--of which this powerful nose was the symbol--to attract and keep in her power two of the most influential men of her time." -- The Nose and the Asp, Ingrid D. Rowland, The New Republic, April 1, 2002

At least I think she is referring to Caesar and Antony, rather than Asterix and Obelix.

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Originally posted by Ivan
Originally posted by VirginiaHuguenot
* I have discovered that all human evil comes from this, man's being unable to sit still in a room. --- Blaise Pascal

He must have know my 2 1/2 year old grandson!

Grandson Phillip ----> :banana:

:lol:

I know whatcha mean. They do have a lot of energy, don't they?
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Here are my two favorite Pascal quotes"

"Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature, but he is a thinking reed. The entire universe need not arm itself to crush him. A vapor, a drop of water suffices to kill him. But, if the universe were to crush him, man would still be more noble than that which killed him, because he knows that he dies and the advantage which the universe has over him, the universe knows nothing of this."

"All our dignity then, consists in thought. By it we must elevate ourselves, and not by space and time which we cannot fill. Let us endavour then, to think well; this is the principle of morality."

--Pascal Pensees 347

The top one, "man is a reed...but a thinking reed" is so great. It truly captures the biblical idea of man.
Jim
 
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Pascal's Memorial (found sewn in his clothing upon his death):

Memorial

In the year of grace, 1654, on Monday, 23rd of November, Feast of St Clement, Pope and Martyr, and others in the Martyrology. Vigil of St Chrysogonus, Martyr, and others.

From about half past ten in the evening until about half past twelve.

Fire!

God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob,
Not of the philosophers and scholars.
Certitude. Certitude. Feeling. Joy. Peace.
God of Jesus Christ.
"Thy God and my God."
Forgetfulness of the world and of everything, except God.
He is to be found only in the ways taught in the Gospel.
Greatness of the Human Soul.

"Righteous Father, the world hath not known Thee,
But I have known Thee."

Joy, joy, joy, tears of joy.
I have separated myself from Him.
"They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters."
"My God, wilt Thou leave me?"
Let me not be separated from Him eternally.

"This is eternal life, That they might know Thee, the only true God,
And Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent."

Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ.

I have separated myself from Him:
I have fled from Him,
denied Him,
crucified Him.
Let me never be separated from Him.
We keep hold of Him only by the ways taught in the Gospel.
Renunciation, total and sweet.
Total submission to Jesus Christ and to my director.
Eternally in joy for a day's training on earth.
"I will not forget thy words."

Amen.
 
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