Background Image
...
Notre Nature Est Dans Le Mouvement; Le Repos Entier Est La Mort. Our Nature Consists In Movement; Absolute Rest Is Death.
-Blaise Pascal
...
Please Wait....
Translating....

Notre Nature Est Dans

Blaise Pascal
...
Notre Nature Est Dans Le Mouvement; Le Repos Entier Est La Mort. Our Nature Consists In Movement; Absolute Rest Is Death.

Understanding the Quote: "notre nature est dans le mouvement; le repos entier est la mort...."

This quote by Blaise Pascal reflects deeply on the theme of movement. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Movement, Absolutes, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how Blaise Pascal interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About Blaise Pascal

Blaise Pascal is celebrated for insightful thoughts on movement and absolutes. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

Views: 9
Topic
Movement
Absolutes
More From Blaise Pascal
Who Knows If This Other Half Of Life Where We Think We're Awake Is Not Another Sleep A Little Different From The First.
Sleep
Thinking
Different
Pride Counterbalances All Our Miseries, For It Either Hides Them, Or, If It Discloses Them, Boasts Of That Disclosure. Pride Has Such A Thorough Possession Of Us, Even In The Midst Of Our Miseries And Faults, That We Are Prepared To Sacrifice Life With Joy, If It May But Be Talked Of.
Sacrifice
Pride
Joy
He Who Does Not Know His Way To The Sea Should Take A River For His Guide.
Sea
Rivers
Doe
When Everyone Is Moving Towards Depravity, No One Seems To Be Moving, But If Someone Stops He Shows Up The Others Who Are Rushing On, By Acting As A Fixed Point.
Moving
Rushing
Acting
Tout Notre Raisonnement Se Re Duit A' Ce Der Au Sentiment. All Our Reasoning Comes Down To Surrendering To Feeling.
Feelings
Sentiments
Reasoning
I Can Readily Conceive Of A Man Without Hands Or Feet; And I Could Conceive Of Him Without A Head, If Experience Had Not Taught Me That By This He Thinks, Thought Then, Is The Essence Of Man, And Without This We Cannot Conceive Of Him.
Men
Thinking
Hands
The Man Who Knows God But Does Not Know His Own Misery, Becomes Proud. The Man Who Knows His Own Misery But Does Not Know God, Ends In Despair...the Knowledge Of Jesus Christ Constitutes The Middle Course Because In Him We Find Both God And Our Own Misery. Jesus Christ Is Therefore A God Whom We Approach Without Pride, And Before Whom We Humble Ourselves Without Despair.
Jesus
Humble
Pride
It Is Dangerous To Tell The People That The Laws Are Unjust; For They Obey Them Only Because They Think Them Just. Therefore It Isnecessary To Tell Them At The Same Time That They Must Obey Them Because They Are Laws, Just As They Must Obey Superiors, Not Because They Are Just, But Because They Are Superiors. In This Way All Sedition Is Prevented.
Thinking
Law
People
That A Religion May Be True, It Must Have Knowledge Of Our Nature.
Religion
May
Being True
I Rather Live As If God Exists To Find Out That He Doesn't Than Live As If He Doesn't Exist To Find Out He Does.
Doe
God Exists
Ifs
It Is Superstitious To Put One's Hopes In Formalities, But Arrogant To Refuse To Submit To Them.
Arrogant
Ceremony
Submit
Those We Call The Ancients Were Really New In Everything.
At The Centre Of Every Human Being Is A God-shaped Vacuum Which Can Only Be Filled By Jesus Christ.
Jesus
Vacuums
Christ
The Heart Has Its Reasons Of Which Reason Knows Nothing.
Love
Inspirational
Life
We Are Only Falsehood, Duplicity, Contradiction; We Both Conceal And Disguise Ourselves From Ourselves.
Lying
Duplicity
Dishonesty
Contradiction Is Not A Sign Of Falsity, Nor The Lack Of Contradiction A Sign Of Truth.
Truth
Contradiction
Mathematics
Man's Grandeur Is That He Knows Himself To Be Miserable.
Men
Miserable
Grandeur
When Intuition And Logic Agree, You Are Always Right.
Math
Intuition
Logic
Law, Without Force, Is Impotent.
Law
Lawyer
Force
Without [diversion] We Would Be In A State Of Weariness, And This Weariness Would Spur Us On To Seek A More Solid Means Of Escaping From It. But Diversion Amuses Us, And Leads Us Unconsciously To Death.
Death
Sadness
Mean
If We Dreamed The Same Thing Every Night, It Would Affect Us Much As The Objects We See Every Day. And If A Common Workman Were Sure To Dream Every Night For Twelve Hours That He Was A King, I Believe He Would Be Almost As Happy As A King Who Should Dream Every Night For Twelve Hours On End That He Was A Common Workman.
Dream
Kings
Believe
We Sail Within A Vast Sphere, Ever Drifting In Uncertainty, Driven From End To End.
Inspirational
Funny
Sailing
What A Chimera Then Is Man. What A Novelty! What A Monster... What A Contradiction, What A Prodigy
Inspiration
Men
Monsters
The World Is Satisfied With Words. Few Appreciate The Things Beneath. [fr., Le Monde Se Paye De Paroles; Peu Approfondissement Les Choses.]
Appreciate
World
Parole
A Mere Trifle Consoles Us, For A Mere Trifle Distresses Us.
Trifles
Distress
Console
Human Life Is Thus Only A Perpetual Illusion; Men Deceive And Flatter Each Other. No One Speaks Of Us In Our Presence As He Does Of Us In Our Absence. Human Society Is Founded On Mutual Deceit; Few Friendships Would Endure If Each Knew What His Friend Said Of Him In His Absence, Although He Then Spoke In Sincerity And Without Passion.
Passion
Men
Deception
The Heart Has Its Order, The Mind Has Its Own, Which Uses Principles And Demonstrations. The Heart Has A Different One. We Do Not Prove That We Ought To Be Loved By Setting Out In Order The Causes Of Love; That Would Be Absurd.
Heart
Order
Mind
All Mankind's Unhappiness Derives From One Thing: His Inability To Know How To Remain In Repose In One Room.
Inability
Rooms
Unhappiness
Man Is Obviously Made For Thinking. Therein Lies All His Dignity And His Merit; And His Whole Duty Is To Think As He Ought.
Lying
Men
Thinking
Nothing Is So Intolerable To Man As Being Fully At Rest, Without Passion, Without Business, Without Entertainment, Without Care. It Is Then That He Recognizes That He Is Empty, Insufficient, Dependent, Ineffectual. From The Depths Of His Soul Now Comes At Once Boredom, Gloom, Sorrow, Chagrin, Resentment And Despair.
Passion
Men
Boredom
In Proportion As Our Own Mind Is Enlarged We Discover A Greater Number Of Men Of Originality. Commonplace People See No Difference Between One Man And Another.
Appreciation
Men
Differences
Nature Is An Infinite Sphere Of Which The Center Is Everywhere And The Circumference Nowhere.
Nature
Math
Garden
Custom Creates The Whole Of Equity, For The Simple Reason That It Is Accepted.
Simple
Reason
Accepted
Console-toi, Tu Ne Me Chercherais Pas Si Tu Ne M'avais Trouve . Comfort Yourself.you Would Not Seek Me If You Had Not Found Me.
Comfort
Found
Console
Curiosity Is Only Vanity. We Usually Only Want To Know Something So That We Can Talk About It.
Pride
Vanity
Curiosity
All I Know Is That I Must Soon Die, But What I Know Least Is This Very Death Which I Cannot Escape.
Death
Knows
Dies
God Has Given Us Evidence Sufficiently Clear To Convince Those With An Open Heart And Mind.
Heart
Mind
Given
What A Difficult Thing It Is To Ask Someone's Advice On A Matter Without Coloring His Judgment By The Way In Which We Present Our Problem.
Advice
Matter
Way
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.
Art
Perfection
Definitions
Muhammad Established A Religion By Putting His Enemies To Death; Jesus Christ By Commanding His Followers To Lay Down Their Lives.
Jesus
Enemy
Islam
How Vain Painting Is, Exciting Admiration By Its Resemblance To Things Of Which We Do Not Admire The Originals.
Admiration
Painting
Vain
Fear Not, Provided You Fear; But If You Fear Not, Then Fear.
Fear Not
Ifs
Look Somewhere Else For Someone Who Can Follow You In Your Researches About Numbers. For My Part, I Confess That They Are Far Beyond Me, And I Am Competent Only To Admire Them.
Math
Somewhere Else
Numbers
We Never Love A Person, But Only Qualities.
Love
Quality
Persons
How I Hate This Folly Of Not Believing In The Eucharist, Etc.! If The Gospel Be True, If Jesus Christ Be God, What Difficulty Is There?
Jesus
Hate
Believe
Nothing Is So Conformable To Reason As To Disavow Reason.
Reason
I Take It As A Matter Not To Be Disputed, That If All Knew What Each Said Of The Other, There Would Not Be Four Friends In The World. This Seems Proved By The Quarrels And Disputes Caused By The Disclosures Which Are Occasionally Made.
Gossip
World
Four
If They [plato And Aristotle] Wrote About Politics It Was As If To Lay Down Rules For A Madhouse. And If They Pretended To Treat It As Something Really Important It Was Because They Knew That The Madmen They Were Talking To Believed Themselves To Be Kings And Emperors. They Humored These Beliefs In Order To Calm Down Their Madness With As Little Harm As Possible.
Kings
Plato
Order
Since We Cannot Be Universal And Know All That Is To Be Known Of Everything, We Ought To Know A Little About Everything. For It Is Far Better To Know Something About Everything Than To Know All About One Thing. This Universality Is The Best. If We Can Have Both, Still Better; But If We Must Choose, We Ought To Choose The Former.
Knowledge
Knows
One Thing
You See, If The Height Of The Mercury [barometer] Column Is Less On The Top Of A Mountain Than At The Foot Of It (as I Have Many Reasons For Believing, Although Everyone Who Has So Far Written About It Is Of The Contrary Opinion), It Follows That The Weight Of The Air Must Be The Sole Cause Of The Phenomenon, And Not That Abhorrence Of A Vacuum, Since It Is Obvious That At The Foot Of The Mountain There Is More Air To Have Weight Than At The Summit, And We Cannot Possibly Say That The Air At The Foot Of The Mountain Has A Greater Aversion To Empty Space Than At The Top.
Believe
Air
Feet
Rivers Are Highways That Move On And Bear Us Whither We Wish To Go.
Moving
Rivers
Wish
When We Do Not Know The Truth Of A Thing, It Is Good That There Should Exist A Common Error Which Determines The Mind Of Man, As, For Example, The Moon, To Which Is Attributed The Change Of Seasons, The Progress Of Diseases, Etc. For The Chief Malady Of Man Is A Restless Curiosity About Things Which He Cannot Understand; And It Is Not So Bad For Him To Be In Error As To Be Curious To No Purpose.
Truth
Men
Moon
No Religion Except Ours Has Taught That Man Is Born In Sin; None Of The Philosophical Sects Has Admitted It; None Therefore Has Spoken The Truth
Philosophical
Men
Taught
Rivers Are Roads That Move And Carry Us Whither We Wish To Go. [fr., Les Rivieres Sont Des Chemins Qui Marchant Et Qui Portent Ou L'on Veut Aller.]
Moving
Rivers
Wish
Noble Deeds That Are Concealed Are Most Esteemed.
Inspirational
Life
Deeds And Words
Continuity In Everything Is Unpleasant.
Change
Continuity
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.
Men
Hands
Feet
No Animal Admires Another Animal.
Animal
Pet
Admire
Jesus Was In A Garden, Not Of Delight As The First Adam, In Which He Destroyed Himself And The Whole Human Race, But In One Of Agony, In Which He Saved Himself And The Whole Human Race.
Jesus
Garden
Race
The Mind Has Its Arrangement; It Proceeds From Principles To Demonstrations. The Heart Has A Different Mode Of Proceeding.
Heart
Mind
Principles
Vanity Is Illustrated In The Cause And Effect Of Love, As In The Case Of Cleopatra.
Vanity
Causes
Cases
Vanity Is So Secure In The Heart Of Man That Everyone Wants To Be Admired: Even I Who Write This, And You Who Read This.
Writing
Heart
Men
What A Strange Vanity Painting Is; It Attracts Admiration By Resembling The Original, We Do Not Admire.
Pain
Vanity
Strange
Man Is Nothing But Insincerity, Falsehood, And Hypocrisy, Both In Regard To Himself And In Regard To Others. He Does Not Wish That He Should Be Told The Truth, He Shuns Saying It To Others; And All These Moods, So Inconsistent With Justice And Reason, Have Their Roots In His Heart.
Heart
Men
Roots
Our True Dignity Consists — In Thought. Thence We Must Derive Our Elevation, Not From Space Or Duration. Let Us Endeavor Then To Think Well; This Is The Principle Of Morals.
Thinking
Principles
Morality
Law Was Once Introduced Without Reason, And Has Become Reasonable.
Law
Reason
Reasonable
How Vain Is Painting, Which Is Admired For Reproducing The Likeness Of Things Whose Originals Are Not Admired.
Vanity
Painting
Vain
If We Do Not Know Ourselves To Be Full Of Pride, Ambition, Lust, Weakness, Misery, And Injustice, We Are Indeed Blind. And If, Knowing This, We Do Not Desire Deliverance, What Can We Say Of A Man...?
Ambition
Pride
Men
The God Of The Infinite Is The God Of The Infinitesimal.
Infinite
It Is Certain That Those Who Have The Living Faith In Their Hearts See At Once That All Existence Is None Other Than The Work Of The God Whom They Adore. But For Those In Whom This Light Is Extinguished, [if We Were To Show Them Our Proofs Of The Existence Of God] Nothing Is More Calculated To Arouse Their Contempt. . . .
Heart
Light
Proof
Let No One Say That I Have Said Nothing New... The Arrangement Of The Subject Is New. When We Play Tennis, We Both Play With The Same Ball, But One Of Us Places It Better.
Math
Play
Tennis
Seeing Too Much To Deny And Too Little To Be Sure, I Am In A State To Be Pitied.
Littles
Too Much
Deny
The More Intelligence One Has, The More People One Finds Original. Commonplace People See No Difference Between Men.
Men
Differences
People
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.
True Love
Believe
Mind
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?
Men
Firsts
Study
To Go Beyond The Bounds Of Moderation Is To Outrage Humanity.
Humanity
Moderation
Outrage
We Are Usually Convinced More Easily By Reasons We Have Found Ourselves Than By Those Which Have Occurred To Others.
Freedom
Democracy
Reason
No One Is Discontented At Not Being A King Except A Discrowned King ... Unhappiness Almost Invariably Indicates The Existence Of A Road Not Taken, A Talent Undeveloped, A Self Not Recognized.
Kings
Taken
Self
Evil Is Easily Discovered; There Is An Infinite Variety; Good Is Almost Unique. But Some Kinds Of Evil Are Almost As Difficult To Discover As That Which We Call Good; And Often Particular Evil Of This Class Passes For Good. It Needs Even A Certain Greatness Of Soul To Attain To This, As To That Which Is Good.
Unique
Greatness
Class
It Is Right That What Is Just Should Be Obeyed. It Is Necessary That What Is Strongest Should Be Obeyed.
Obedience
Should
Strongest
Let Man Then Contemplate The Whole Of Nature In Her Full And Grand Majesty... No Idea Approaches It. We May Enlarge Our Conceptions Beyond All Imaginable Space; We Only Produce Atoms In Comparison With The Reality Of Things. It Is An Infinite Sphere, The Center Of Which Is Everywhere, The Circumference Nowhere.
Nature
Reality
Men
Concupiscence And Force Are The Source Of All Our Actions; Concupiscence Causes Voluntary Actions, Force Involuntary Ones.
Our Actions
Causes
Morality
There Is A God Shaped Vacuum In The Heart Of Every Man Which Cannot Be Filled By Any Created Thing, But Only By God, The Creator, Made Known Through Jesus.
God
Spiritual
Jesus
Justice Is As Much A Matter Of Fashion As Charm Is.
Fashion
Justice
Matter
Reason Is The Slow And Torturous Method By Which Those Who Do Not Know The Truth Discover It
Reason
Method
Knows
Nothing Is So Important To Man As His Own State; Nothing Is So Formidable To Him As Eternity. And Thus It Is Unnatural That Thereshould Be Men Indifferent To The Loss Of Their Existence And To The Perils Of Everlasting Suffering.
Death
Loss
Men
Therefore, Those To Whom God Has Imparted Religion By Intuition Are Very Fortunate And Justly Convinced. But To Those Who Do Not Have It, We Can Give It Only By Reasoning, Waiting For God To Give Them Spiritual Insight, Without Which Faith Is Only Human And Useless For Salvation.
Spiritual
Giving
Waiting
What Amazes Me Most Is To See That Everyone Is Not Amazed At His Own Weakness.
Weakness
Amazed
Man Lives Between The Infinitely Large And The Infinitely Small.
Men
It Is The Contest That Delights Us, And Not The Victory.
Victory
Delight
Contests
It Is The Heart Which Perceives God And Not The Reason.
Heart
Math
Reason
Equality Of Possessions Is No Doubt Right, But, As Men Could Not Make Might Obey Right, They Have Made Right Obey Might.
Men
Doubt
Might
To Find Recreation In Amusement Is Not Happiness.
Happiness
Greatest Love
Amusement
Amusement That Is Excessive And Followed Only For Its Own Sake, Allures And Deceives Us.
Amusement
Sake
Deceiving
So We Can Only Know God Well By Knowing Our Iniquities. Therefore Those Who Have Known God, Without Knowing Their Wretchedness, Have Not Glorified Him, But Have Glorified Themselves.
Knowing
Sin
Wells
The Married Should Not Forget That To Speak Of Love Begets Love.
Marriage
Love Is
Married
Le Moi Est Ha|«s Sable. The Self Is Hateful.
Self
Hateful
The Greatest Single Distinguishing Feature Of The Omnipotence Of God Is That Our Imagination Gets Lost Thinking About It.
Thinking
Omnipotence
Imagination
Few Friendships Would Survive If Each One Knew What His Friend Says Of Him Behind His Back.
Friendship
Emotional
Behinds
All Of Our Reasoning Ends In Surrender To Feeling.
Letting Go
Being Alone
Feelings
Nothing Is Good But Mediocrity. The Majority Has Settled That, And Finds Fault With Him Who Escapes It At Whichever End... To Leave The Mean Is To Abandon Humanity.
Mean
Humanity
Majority
Continuous Eloquence Is Tedious.
Teaching
Eloquence
Tedious
The Incredulous Are The More Credulous. They Believe The Miracles Of Vespasian That They May Not Believe Those Of Moses. [fr., Incredules Les Plus Credules. Ils Croient Les Miracle De Vespasien, Pour Ne Pas Croire Ceux De Moise.]
Believe
Miracle
May
All Men Have Happiness As Their Object: There Is No Exception. However Different The Means They Employ, They All Aim At The Same End.
Happiness
Mean
Men
If Man Should Commence By Studying Himself, He Would See How Impossible It Is To Go Further.
Men
Impossible
Study
We Do Not Weary Of Eating And Sleeping Every Day, For Hunger And Sleepiness Recur. Without That We Should Weary Of Them. So, Without The Hunger For Spiritual Things, We Weary Of Them. Hunger After Righteousness--the Eighth Beatitude.
Faith
Spiritual
Sleep
Knowledge Has Two Extremes. The First Is The Pure Natural Ignorance In Which All Men Find Themselves At Birth. The Other Extreme Is That Reached By Great Minds, Who, Having Run Through All That Men Can Know, Find They Know Nothing, And Come Back Again To That Same Natural Ignorance From Which They Set Out; This Is A Learned Ignorance Which Is Conscious Of Itself.
Running
Ignorance
Knowledge
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.
Soul
Feelings
Matter
All Our Reasoning Boils Down To Yielding To Sentiment.
Sentiments
Reasoning
We Do Not Content Ourselves With The Life We Have In Ourselves And In Our Being; We Desire To Live An Imaginary Life In The Mind Of Others, And For This Purpose We Endeavor To Shine. We Labor Unceasingly To Adorn And Preserve This Imaginary Existence And Neglect The Real.
Real
Vanity
Hypocrisy
Reason's Last Step Is To Acknowledge That There Are Infinitely Many Things Beyond It.
Lasts
Steps
Reason
True Eloquence Makes Light Of Eloquence. True Morality Makes Light Of Morality.
Light
Morality
Eloquence
All The Miseries Of Mankind Come From One Thing, Not Knowing How To Remain Alone.
Knowing
Misery
Mankind
Since [man] Is Infinitely Removed From Comprehending The Extremes, The End Of Things And Their Beginning Are Hopelessly Hidden From Him In An Impenetrable Secret; He Is Equally Incapable Of Seeing The Nothing From Which He Was Made, And The Infinite In Which He Is Swallowed Up.
Knowledge
Men
Secret
We Must Make Good People Wish That The Christian Faith Were True, And Then Show That It Is.
Christian
People
Wish
According To The Doctrine Of Chance, You Ought To Put Yourself To The Trouble Of Searching For The Truth; For If You Die Without Worshiping The True Cause, You Are Lost. "but," Say You, "if He Had Wished Me To Worship Him, He Would Have Left Me Signs Of His Will." He Has Done So; But You Neglect Them. Seek Them, Therefore; It Is Well Worth It.
Doctrine
Done
Causes
All Great Amusements Are Dangerous To The Christian Life; But Among All Those Which The World Has Invented There Is None More To Be Feared Than The Theater. It Is A Representation Of The Passions So Natural And So Delicate That It Excites Them And Gives Birth To Them In Our Hearts, And, Above All, To That Of Love.
Love
Christian
Passion
By Space The Universe Encompasses And Swallows Me Up Like An Atom; By Thought I Comprehend The World.
Space
Atoms
World
Symmetry Is What We See At A Glance; Based On The Fact That There Is No Reason For Any Difference.
Differences
Facts
Reason
Montaigne Is Wrong In Declaring That Custom Ought To Be Followed Simply Because It Is Custom, And Not Because It Is Reasonable Or Just.
Reasonable
Ought
Declaring
All That Tends Not To Charity Is Figurative. The Sole Aim Of The Scripture Is Charity.
Charity
Scripture
Sole
La Chose La Plus Importante A' Toute La Vie Est Le Choix Du Me Tier: Le Hasard En Dispose. The Most Important Thing In Life Is To Choose A Profession: Chance Arranges For That.
Things In Life
Important
Chance
Opinion Is The Queen Of The World.
Queens
World
Opinion
All The Troubles Of Life Come Upon Us Because We Refuse To Sit Quietly For A While Each Day In Our Rooms.
Prayer
Each Day
Rooms
Le Silence E Ternel De Ces Espaces Infinis M'effraie. The Eternal Silence Of These Infinite Spaces Fills Me With Dread.
Space
Silence
Infinite
Perfect Clarity Would Profit The Intellect But Damage The Will.
Math
Perfect
Damage
Discourses On Humility Are A Source Of Pride In The Vain And Of Humility In The Humble.
Humble
Humility
Pride
It's Not Those Who Write The Laws That Have The Greatest Impact On Society. It's Those Who Write The Songs.
Song
Writing
Impact
Il N'est Pas Certain Que Tout Soit Incertain. (translation: It Is Not Certain That Everything Is Uncertain.)
Uncertain
Certain
Translations
The Authority Of Reason Is Far More Imperious Than That Of A Master; For He Who Disobeys The One Is Unhappy, But He Who Disobeys The Other Is A Fool.
Unhappy
Fool
Reason
We Know That There Is An Infinite, And We Know Not Its Nature. As We Know It To Be False That Numbers Are Finite, It Is Therefore True That There Is A Numerical Infinity. But We Know Not Of What Kind; It Is Untrue That It Is Even, Untrue That It Is Odd; For The Addition Of A Unit Does Not Change Its Nature; Yet It Is A Number, And Every Number Is Odd Or Even (this Certainly Holds Of Every Finite Number). Thus We May Quite Well Know That There Is A God Without Knowing What He Is.
Change
God
Knowledge
I Know Whom I Have Believed.
Faith
Knows
We Know Then The Existence And Nature Of The Finite, Because We Also Are Finite And Have Extension. We Know The Existence Of The Infinite And Are Ignorant Of Its Nature, Because It Has Extension Like Us, But Not Limits Like Us. But We Know Neither The Existence Nor The Nature Of God, Because He Has Neither Extension Nor Limits.
God
Ignorant
Limits
Man Is Full Of Desires: He Loves Only Those Who Can Satisfy Them All. "this Man Is A Good Mathematician," Someone Will Say. But I Have No Concern For Mathematics; He Would Take Me For A Proposition. "that One Is A Good Soldier." He Would Take Me For A Besieged Town. I Need, That Is To Say, A Decent Man Who Can Accommodate Himself To All My Desires In A General Sort Of Way.
Love
Math
Men
To Call A King "prince" Is Pleasing, Because It Diminishes His Rank.
Kings
Diminish
Nothing Fortifies Scepticism More Than That There Are Some Who Are Not Sceptics; If All Were So, They Would Be Wrong.
Would Be
Facts
Scepticism
If It Is An Extraordinary Blindness To Live Without Investigating What We Are, It Is A Terrible One To Live An Evil Life, While Believing In God
Believe
Evil
Blindness
We Run Heedlessly Into The Abyss After Putting Something In Front Of Us To Stop Us From Seeing It.
Running
Abyss
Seeing
Faith Affirms Many Things, Respecting Which The Senses Are Silent, But Nothing That They Deny. It Is Superior, But Never Opposed To Their Testimony
Faith
Silent
Deny
To Understand Is To Forgive.
Forgiveness
Understanding
Forgiving
The Present Letter Is A Very Long One, Simply Because I Had No Leisure To Make It Shorter.
Long
Letters
Leisure
One Must Have Deeper Motives And Judge Everything Accordingly, But Go On Talking Like An Ordinary Person.
Talking
Judging
Ordinary
Parents Fear The Destruction Of Natural Affection In Their Children. What Is This Natural Principle So Liable To Decay? Habit Is A Second Nature, Which Destroys The First. Why Is Not Custom Nature? I Suspect That This Nature Itself Is But A First Custom, As Custom Is A Second Nature.
Children
Parent
Firsts
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.
Lasts
Infinity
Reason
Chance Gives Rise To Thoughts, And Chance Removes Them; No Art Can Keep Or Acquire Them.
Art
Destiny
Giving
It Is Certain That The Soul Is Either Mortal Or Immortal. The Decision Of This Question Must Make A Total Difference In The Principles Of Morals. Yet Philosophers Have Arranged Their Moral System Entirely Independent Of This. What An Extraordinary Blindness!
Independent
Differences
Decision
Eloquence; It Requires The Pleasant And The Real; But The Pleasant Must Itself Be Drawn From The True.
Real
Eloquence
Pleasant
True Eloquence Makes Light Of Eloquence, True Morality Makes Light Of Morality; That Is To Say, The Morality Of The Judgment, Which Has No Rules, Makes Light Of The Morality Of The Intellect.... To Make Light Of Philosophy Is To Be A True Philosopher.
Philosophy
Light
Morality
Reflect On Death As In Jesus Christ, Not As Without Jesus Christ. Without Jesus Christ It Is Dreadful, It Is Alarming, It Is The Terror Of Nature. In Jesus Christ It Is Fair And Lovely, It Is Good And Holy, It Is The Joy Of Saints.
Death
Jesus
Joy
Love Has Reasons Which Reason Cannot Understand.
Reason
Reason To Love
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.
Wisdom
Intelligence
Fool
Admiration Spoils All From Infancy.
Admiration
Infancy
Spoil
Earnestness Is Enthusiasm Tempered By Reason.
Integrity
Enthusiasm
Reason
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.
Discovery
People
Mind
How Shall One Who Is So Weak In His Childhood Become Really Strong When He Grows Older? We Only Change Our Fancies.
Strong
Childhood
Immaturity
The State Of Man Is Inconstancy, Ennui, Anxiety.
Life
Men
Anxiety
Any Unity Which Doesn't Have Its Origin In The Multitudes Is Tyranny.
Unity
Tyranny
Multitudes
(man,) The Glory And The Scandal Of The Universe.
Men
Scandal
Glory
To Ridicule Philosophy Is Truly Philosophical. [fr., Se Moquer De La Philosophie C'est Vraiment Philosophe.]
Philosophy
Philosophical
Ridicule
Man Is So Great That His Greatness Appears Even In The Consciousness Of His Misery. A Tree Does Not Know Itself To Be Miserable. It Is True That It Is Misery Indeed To Know One's Self To Be Miserable; But Then It Is Greatness Also. In This Way, All Man's Miseries Go To Prove His Greatness. They Are The Miseries Of A Mighty Potentate, Of A Dethroned Monarch.
Greatness
Men
Self
The Least Movement Is Of Importance To All Nature. The Entire Ocean Is Affected By A Pebble.
Nature
Motivation
Ocean
The Sum Of A Man's Problems Come From His Inability To Be Alone In A Silent Room.
Men
Inability
Rooms
From Whence Comes It That A Cripple In Body Does Not Irritate Us, And That A Crippled Mind Enrages Us? It Is Because A Cripple Sees That We Go Right, And A Distorted Mind Says That It Is We Who Go Astray. But For That We Should Have More Pity And Less Rage.
Should Have
Mind
Doe
Who Dispenses Reputation? Who Makes Us Respect And Revere Persons, Works, Laws, The Great? Who But This Faculty Of Imagination? All The Riches Of The Earth Are Inadequate Without Its Approval.
Law
Imagination
Earth
There Is A Virtuous Fear, Which Is The Effect Of Faith; And There Is A Vicious Fear, Which Is The Product Of Doubt. The Former Leads To Hope, As Relying On God, In Whom We Believe; The Latter Inclines To Despair, As Not Relying On God, In Whom We Do Not Believe. Persons Of The One Character Fear To Lose God; Persons Of The Other Character Fear To Find Him.
Fear
Believe
Character
The Sole Cause Of Man's Unhappiness Is That He Does Not Know How To Stay Quietly In His Room.
Math
Men
Doe
If He Exalts Himself, I Humble Him. If He Humbles Himself, I Exalt Him. And I Go On Contradicting Him Until He Understands That He Is A Monster That Passes All Understanding.
Humble
Understanding
Monsters
Truth Is So Obscure In These Times, And Falsehood So Established, That, Unless We Love The Truth, We Cannot Know It.
Love
Religion
Truth Is
No Soul Of High Estate Can Take Pleasure In Slander. It Betrays A Weakness.
Betrayal
Soul
Weakness
The Last Thing We Decide In Writing A Book Is What To Put First.
Inspirational
Book
Writing
Meanings Receive Their Dignity From Words Instead Of Giving It To Them.
Giving
Dignity
When We See A Natural Style, We Are Astonished And Charmed; For We Expected To See An Author, And We Find A Person.
Writing
Style
Natural
One-half Of The Ills Of Life Come Because Men Are Unwilling To Sit Down Quietly For Thirty Minutes To Think Through All The Possible Consequences Of Their Acts.
Spiritual
Men
Thinking
The Multitude Which Does Not Reduce Itself To Unity Is Confusion.
Confusion
Confusing
Unity
Must We Kill To Prevent There Being Any Wicked? This Is To Make Both Parties Wicked Instead Of One.
Party
Wicked
Killing
Wisdom Leads Us Back To Childhood.
Childhood
If A Soldier Or Labourer Complain Of The Hardship Of His Lot, Set Him To Do Nothing.
Soldier
Complaining
Hardship
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.
Kings
Men
Circles
Either God Exists Or He Doesn't. Either I Believe In God Or I Don't. Of The Four Possibilities, Only One Is To My Disadvantage. To Avoid That Possibility, I Believe In God.
God
Believe
Four
When We See An Effect Happen Always In The Same Manner, We Infer That It Takes Place By A Natural Necessity; As, For Instance, That The Sun Will Rise To Morrow; But Nature Often Deceives Us, And Will Not Submit To Its Own Rules.
Nature
Sun
Deceiving
Man Finds Nothing So Intolerable As To Be In A State Of Complete Rest, Without Passions, Without Occupation, Without Diversion, Without Effort. Then He Feels His Nullity, Loneliness, Inadequacy, Dependence, Helplessness, Emptiness.
Loneliness
Passion
Men
The Last Advance Of Reason Is To Recognize That It Is Surpassed By Innumerable Things; It Is Feeble If It Cannot Realize That.
Lasts
Realizing
Reason
The Eternal Being Is Forever If He Is At All.
God
Forever
Eternal
Human Beings Do Not Know Their Place And Purpose. They Have Fallen From Their True Place, And Lost Their True Purpose. They Search Everywhere For Their Place And Purpose, With Great Anxiety. But They Cannot Find Them Because They Are Surrounded By Darkness.
Anxiety
Darkness
Purpose
Some Vices Only Lay Hold Of Us By Means Of Others, And These, Like Branches, Fall On Removal Of The Trunk.
Fall
Mean
Vices
We Desire Truth, And Find Within Ourselves Only Uncertainty. We Seek Happiness, And Find Only Misery And Death. We Cannot But Desire Truth And Happiness, And Are Incapable Of Certainty Or Happiness.
Desire
Misery
Certainty
All Men Seek Happiness. This Is Without Exception. Whatever Different Means They Employ, They All Tend To This End. The Cause Of Some Going To War, And Of Others Avoiding It, Is The Same Desire In Both, Attended With Different Views. The Will Never Takes The Least Step But To This Object. This Is The Motive Of Every Action Of Every Man, Even Of Those Who Hang Themselves.
Happiness
War
Mean
Just As I Do Not Know Where I Came From, So I Do Not Know Where I Am Going. All I Know Is That When I Leave This World I Shall Fall Forever Into Oblivion, Or Into The Hands Of An Angry God, Without Knowing Which Of The Two Will Be My Lot For Eternity. Such Is My State Of Mind, Full Of Weakness And Uncertainty. The Only Conclusion I Can Draw From All This Is That I Must Pass My Days Without A Thought Of Trying To Find Out What Is Going To Happen To Me.
Fall
Hands
Two
It Is An Appalling Thing To Feel All One Possesses Drain Away.
Drains
Feels
To Have No Time For Philosophy Is To Be A True Philosopher.
Philosophy
Philosopher
There Is Nothing That We Can See On Earth Which Does Not Either Show The Wretchedness Of Man Or The Mercy Of God. One Either Sees The Powerlessness Of Man Without God, Or The Strength Of Man With God.
Men
Mercy Of God
Doe
Discourses On Humility Are A Source Of Pride In The Vain And Of Humility In The Humble. So Those On Scepticism Cause Believers To Affirm. Few Men Speak Humbly Of Humility, Chastely Of Chastity, Few Doubtingly Of Scepticism.
Humble
Humility
Pride
Man Is Only A Reed, The Weakest In Nature, But He Is A Thinking Reed. There Is No Need For The Whole Universe To Take Up Arms To Crush Him: A Vapour, A Drop Of Water Is Enough To Kill Him. But Even If The Universe Were To Crush Him, Man Would Still Be Nobler Than His Slayer, Because He Knows That He Is Dying And The Advantage The Universe Has Over Him. The Universe Knows None Of This.
Crush
Men
Thinking
Man's Greatness Lies In His Power Of Thought.
Lying
Power
Greatness
There Are Plenty Of Maxims In The World; All That Remains Is To Apply Them.
World
All That Remains
Maxims
Lust Is The Source Of All Our Actions, And Humanity.
Humanity
Lust
Our Actions
The Weakness Of Human Reason Appears More Evidently In Those Who Know It Not Than In Those Who Know It.
Weakness
Reason
Humans
If Man Were Happy, He Would Be The More So, The Less He Was Diverted, Like The Saints And God.
Happiness
God
Men
Force Rules The World-not Opinion; But It Is Opinion That Makes Use Of Force.
Use
World
Opinion
We See Neither Justice Nor Injustice Which Does Not Change Its Nature With Change In Climate. Three Degrees Of Latitude Reverse All Jurisprudence; A Meridian Decides The Truth.
Justice
Climate
Degrees
Trending Author
Martha Plimpton
Anne Campbell
Ella Fitzgerald
Chad Smith
David Hare
Alan Kulwicki
Category
Information