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We Run Carelessly To The Precipice, After We Have Put Something Before Us To Prevent Us Seeing It.
-Blaise Pascal
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We Run Carelessly To

Blaise Pascal
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We Run Carelessly To The Precipice, After We Have Put Something Before Us To Prevent Us Seeing It.

Understanding the Quote: "we run carelessly to the precipice, after we have put something before..."

This quote by Blaise Pascal reflects deeply on the theme of running. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Running, Aging, Precipice, 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 running and aging. 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.

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Topic
Running
Aging
Precipice
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Kind Words Produce Their Images On Men's Souls.
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The Pagans Do Not Know God, And Love Only The Earth. The Jews Know The True God, And Love Only The Earth. The Christians Know The True God, And Do Not Love The Earth.
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I Am In The Utmost Perplexity, Yand Have Wished A Hundred Times, That If There Is A A God, Nature Would Manifest Him Without Ambiguity, And That If There Is Not, Every Imaginary Sign Of His Existence Might Vanish : In Short, Let Nature Speak Distinctly, Or Be Totally Silent, And I Shall Know What Course To Take.
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What A Strange Vanity Painting Is; It Attracts Admiration By Resembling The Original, We Do Not Admire.
Pain
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All The Unhappiness Of Men Arises From One Single Fact, That They Cannot Stay Quietly In Their Own Chamber.
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Man Lives Between The Infinitely Large And The Infinitely Small.
Men
We Only Consult The Ear Because The Heart Is Wanting.
Heart
Listening
Ears
Most Of Man's Trouble Comes From His Inability To Be Still.
Men
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Look For The Truth, It Wants To Be Found.
Looks
Want
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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
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All Our Troubles Come From Not Being Able To Be Alone.
Modern Life
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The More Intelligent A Man Is, The More Originality He Discovers In Others.
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Men
Originality
What A Vast Difference There Is Between Knowing God And Loving Him.
Differences
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The Sensitivity Of Men To Small Matters, And Their Indifference To Great Ones, Indicates A Strange Inversion.
Men
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By Thought I Embrace The Universe.
Embrace
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The Multitude Which Does Not Reduce Itself To Unity Is Confusion.
Confusion
Confusing
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Discourses On Humility Are A Source Of Pride In The Vain And Of Humility In The Humble.
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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.
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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.
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We View Things Not Only From Different Sides, But With Different Eyes; We Have No Wish To Find Them Alike.
Eye
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What A Chimaera Then Is Man, What A Novelty, What A Monster, What Chaos, What A Subject Of Contradiction, What A Prodigy! Judge Of All Things, Yet An Imbecile Earthworm; Depository Of Truth, Yet A Sewer Of Uncertainty And Error; Pride And Refuse Of The Universe. Who Shall Resolve This Tangle?
Truth
Pride
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Education Produces Natural Intuitions, And Natural Intuitions Are Erased By Education.
Education
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Our Notion Of Symmetry Is Derived Form The Human Face. Hence, We Demand Symmetry Horizontally And In Breadth Only, Not Vertically Nor In Depth.
Math
Depth
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Jesus Christ Came To Tell Men That They Have No Enemies But Themselves.
Jesus
Men
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Fuller Believed Human Societies Would Soon Rely Mainly On Renewable Sources Of Energy, Such As Solar- And Wind-derived Electricity,. Envisioned An Age Of "universal Education And Sustenance Of All Humanity". "the Heart Has Reasons That Reason Does Not Understand."
Life
Heart
Wind
Instinct Teaches Us To Look For Happiness Outside Ourselves.
Looks
Instinct
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Human Beings Must Be Known To Be Loved; But Divine Beings Must Be Loved To Be Known.
Love
Native American
Religion
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
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.
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Math
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Piety Is Different From Superstition. To Carry Piety To The Extent Of Superstition Is To Destroy It. The Heretics Reproach Us With This Superstitious Submission. It Is Doing What They Reproach Us With.
Different
Superstitions
Submission
Continued Eloquence Is Wearisome.
Eloquence
May God Never Abandon Me.
May
Last Words
Abandon
Love Has Reasons Which Reason Cannot Understand.
Reason
Reason To Love
Nothing Is Thoroughly Approved But Mediocrity. The Majority Has Established This, And It Fixes Its Fangs On Whatever Gets Beyond It Either Way.
Majority
Mediocrity
Way
Admiration Spoils All From Infancy.
Admiration
Infancy
Spoil
Lust Is The Source Of All Our Actions, And Humanity.
Humanity
Lust
Our Actions
The Consciousness Of The Falsity Of Present Pleasures, And The Ignorance Of The Vanity Of Absent Pleasures, Cause Inconstancy.
Ignorance
Vanity
Causes
When One Does Not Love Too Much, One Does Not Love Enough.
Doe
Too Much
Enough
Man Governs Himself More By Impulse Than Reason
Men
Reason
Impulse
The Law Required What It Could Not Give. Grace Gives That Which It Requires.
Law
Giving
Grace
It Is Not Only Old And Early Impressions That Deceive Us; The Charms Of Novelty Have The Same Power.
Deception
Novelty
Deceiving
The God Of The Infinite Is The God Of The Infinitesimal.
Infinite
Amusement Allures And Deceives Us And Leads Us Down Imperceptibly In Thoughtlessness To The Grave
Amusement
Deceiving
Graves
I Cannot Judge My Work While I Am Doing It. I Have To Do As Painters Do, Stand Back And View It From A Distance, But Not Too Great A Distance. How Great? Guess.
Work
Distance
Math
Not Only Do We Know God Through Jesus Christ, We Only Know Ourselves Through Jesus Christ.
Jesus
Christ
Knowing God
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
Tout Notre Raisonnement Se Re Duit A' Ce Der Au Sentiment. All Our Reasoning Comes Down To Surrendering To Feeling.
Feelings
Sentiments
Reasoning
On The Occasions When I Have Pondered Over Men's Various Activities, The Dangers And Worries They Are Exposed To At Court Or At War, From Which So Many Quarrels, Passions, Risky, Often Ill-conceived Actions And So On Are Born, I Have Often Said That Man's Unhappiness Springs From One Thing Alone, His Incapacity To Stay Quietly In One Room.
Spring
War
Passion
Justice Is As Much A Matter Of Fashion As Charm Is.
Fashion
Justice
Matter
Amusement That Is Excessive And Followed Only For Its Own Sake, Allures And Deceives Us.
Amusement
Sake
Deceiving
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
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
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
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Mind
I Have Made This Letter Longer Than Usual, Only Because I Have Not Had The Time To Make It Shorter.
Time
Learning
Usual
To Ridicule Philosophy Is Truly Philosophical. [fr., Se Moquer De La Philosophie C'est Vraiment Philosophe.]
Philosophy
Philosophical
Ridicule
Some Vices Only Lay Hold Of Us By Means Of Others, And These, Like Branches, Fall On Removal Of The Trunk.
Fall
Mean
Vices
Contradiction Is Not A Sign Of Falsity, Nor The Lack Of Contradiction A Sign Of Truth.
Truth
Contradiction
Mathematics
All This Visible World Is But An Imperceptible Point In The Ample Bosom Of Nature.
Nature
World
Visible
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
Earnestness Is Enthusiasm Tempered By Reason.
Integrity
Enthusiasm
Reason
When I See The Blind And Wretched State Of Men, When I Survey The Whole Universe In Its Deadness, And Man Left To Himself With No Light, As Though Lost In This Corner Of The Universe Without Knowing Who Put Him There, What He Has To Do, Or What Will Become Of Him When He Dies, Incapable Of Knowing Anything, I Am Moved To Terror, Like A Man Transported In His Sleep To Some Terrifying Desert Island, Who Wakes Up Quite Lost, With No Means Of Escape. Then I Marvel That So Wretched A State Does Not Drive People To Despair.
Atheist
Mean
Sleep
All Evil Stems From This-that We Do. Know How To Handle Your Solitude.
Evil
Solitude
Stem
The Secrets Of Nature Are Concealed; Her Agency Is Perpetual, But We Do Not Always Discover Its Effects; Time Reveals Them From Age To Age; And Although She Is Always The Same In Herself, She Is Not Always Equally Well Known.
Nature
Agency
Secret
The Present Is Never The Mark Of Our Designs. We Use Both Past And Present As Our Means And Instruments, But The Future Only As Our Object And Aim.
Future
Mean
Past
The Multitude Which Is Not Brought To Act As A Unity, Is Confusion. That Unity Which Has Not Its Origin In The Multitude Is Tyranny.
Confusion
Unity
Tyranny
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
We Are So Presumptuous That We Wish To Be Known To All The World, Even To Those Who Come After Us; And We Are So Vain That The Esteem Of Five Or Six Persons Immediately Around Us Is Enough To Amuse And Satisfy Us.
Vanity
Wish
World
To Ridicule Philosophy Is Really To Philosophize.
Philosophy
Ridicule
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
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.
Winning
Light
Mind
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.
Greatness
Men
Circles
All Men's Miseries Derive From Not Being Able To Sit In A Quiet Room Alone.
Inspirational
Peace
Hipster
Plurality Which Is Not Reduced To Unity Is Confusion; Unity Which Does Not Depend On Plurality Is Tyranny.
Confusion
Unity
Doe
The Stoics Say, "retire Within Yourselves; It Is There You Will Find Your Rest." And That Is Not True. Others Say, "go Out Of Yourselves; Seek Happiness In Amusement." And This Is Not True. Illness Comes. Happiness Is Neither Without Us Nor Within Us. It Is In God, Both Without Us And Within Us.
Amusement
Illness
Retiring
To Find Recreation In Amusement Is Not Happiness.
Happiness
Greatest Love
Amusement
Notwithstanding The Sight Of All Our Miseries, Which Press Upon Us And Take Us By The Throat, We Have An Instinct Which We Cannot Repress, And Which Lifts Us Up.
Sight
Misery
Instinct
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
I Know Whom I Have Believed.
Faith
Knows
No Soul Of High Estate Can Take Pleasure In Slander. It Betrays A Weakness.
Betrayal
Soul
Weakness
We Are Fools To Depend Upon The Society Of Our Fellow-men. Wretched As We Are, Powerless As We Are, They Will Not Aid Us; We Shall Die Alone.
Men
Solitude
Fellow Man
The Statements Of Atheists Ought To Be Perfectly Clear Of Doubt. Now It Is Not Perfectly Clear That The Soul Is Material.
Atheist
Soul
Doubt
I Do Not Admire A Virtue Like Valour When It Is Pushed To Excess, If I Do Not See At The Same Time The Excess Of The Opposite Virtue, As One Does In Epaminondas, Who Displayed Extreme Valour And Extreme Benevolence. For Otherwise It Is Not An Ascent, But A Fall. We Do Not Display Our Greatness By Placing Ourselves At One Extremity, But Rather By Being At Both At The Same Time, And Filling Up The Whole Of The Space Between Them.
Fall
Greatness
Space
L'on A Beau Se Cacher A' Soi-me" Me, L'on Aime Toujours. We Vainly Conceal From Ourselves The Fact That We Are Always In Love.
Facts
Why God Has Instituted Prayer:— To Communicate To His Creatures The Dignity Of Causation.
Prayer
Causality
Dignity
Thought Makes The Whole Dignity Of Man; Therefore Endeavor To Think Well, That Is The Only Morality.
Men
Thinking
Morality
The Stream Is Always Purer At Its Source. [fr., Les Choses Valent Toujours Mieux Dans Leur Source.]
Purity
Source
Streams
This Is What I See, And What Troubles Me. I Look On All Sides, And Everywhere I See Nothing But Obscurity. Nature Offers Me Nothing That Is Not A Matter Of Doubt And Disquiet.
Doubt
Obscurity
Looks
We Need Not Have The Loftiest Mind To Understand That Here Is No Lasting And Real Satisfaction, That Our Pleasures Are Only Vanity, That Our Evils Are Infinite, And, Lastly, That Death, Which Threatens Us Every Moment, Must Infallibly Place Us Within A Few Years Under The Dreadful Necessity Of Being Forever Either Annihilated Or Unhappy.
Death
Real
Vanity
However Vast A Man's Spiritual Resources, He Is Capable Of But One Great Passion.
Spiritual
Passion
Math
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?
Peace
Men
Rivers
The Last Function Of Reason Is To Recognize That There Are An Infinity Of Things Which Surpass It.
History
Lasts
Infinity
Distraction Is The Only Thing That Consoles Us For Our Miseries. Yet It Is Itself The Greatest Of Our Miseries.
Misery
Distraction
Console
L'homme N'est Ni Ange Ni Be" Te, Et Le Malheur Veut Que Qui Veut Faire L'ange Fait La Be" Te. Man Is Neither Angel Nor Beast.unfortunately, He Who Wants To Act The Angel Often Acts The Beast.
Angel
Men
Want
Do Little Things As If They Were Great, Because Of The Majesty Of The Lord Jesus Christ Who Dwells In Thee.
Jesus
Deeds
Littles
The Least Movement Is Of Importance To All Nature. The Entire Ocean Is Affected By A Pebble.
Nature
Motivation
Ocean
Being Unable To Cure Death, Wretchedness, And Ignorance, Men Have Decided, In Order To Be Happy, Not To Think About Such Things.
Ignorance
Men
Thinking
Necessity, That Great Refuge And Excuse For Human Frailty, Breaks Through All Law; And He Is Not To Be Accounted In Fault Whose Crime Is Not The Effect Of Choice, But Force.
Law
Break Through
Choices
The Entire Ocean Is Affected By A Single Pebble.
Ocean
Pebbles
Affected
All Our Dignity Lies In Our Thoughts.
Lying
Dignity
Our Thoughts
I Feel Engulfed In The Infinite Immensity Of Spaces Whereof I Know Nothing, And Which Know Nothing Of Me, I Am Terrified The Eternal Silence Of These Infinite Spaces Alarms Me.
Math
Space
Silence
Men Never Do Evil So Completely And Cheerfully As When They Do It From Religious Conviction.
Inspirational
Sad
Religious
What Is It, In Your Opinion, To Be A Great Nobleman? It Is To Be Master Of Several Objects That Men Covet, And Thus To Be Able To Satisfy The Wants And The Desires Of Many. It Is These Wants And These Desires That Attract Them Towards You, And That Make Them Submit To You: Were It Not For These, They Would Not Even Look At You; But They Hope, By These Services... To Obtain From You Some Part Of The Good Which They Desire, And Of Which They See That You Have The Disposal.
Men
Desire
Looks
Let Each Of Us Examine His Thoughts
Few Men Speak Humbly Of Humility, Chastely Of Chastity, Skeptically Of Skepticism.
Humility
Pride
Math
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
Faith Is A Sounder Guide Than Reason. Reason Can Only Go So Far, But Faith Has No Limits.
Faith
Limits
Reason
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
Our Reason Is Always Disappointed By The Inconstancy Of Appearances.
Appearance
Reason
Inconstancy
The World Is Satisfied With Words, Few Care To Dive Beneath The Surface.
World
Care
Beneath The Surface
The Greater Intellect One Has, The More Originality One Finds In Men. Ordinary Persons Find No Difference Between Men.
Men
Differences
Ordinary
Each One Is All In All To Himself; For Being Dead, All Is Dead To Him.
Self
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
Custom Determines What Is Agreeable.
Determine
Customs
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
Those Whom We Call Ancient Were Really New In All Things, And Properly Constituted The Infancy Of Mankind.
Ancient
Infancy
Mankind
As We Speak Of Poetical Beauty, So Ought We To Speak Of Mathematical Beauty And Medical Beauty. But We Do Not Do So; And That Reason Is That We Know Well What Is The Object Of Mathematics, And That It Consists In Proofs, And What Is The Object Of Medicine, And That It Consists In Healing. But We Do Not Know In What Grace Consists, Which Is The Object Of Poetry.
Beauty
Healing
Medicine
A Little Thing Comforts Us Because A Little Thing Afflicts Us.
Comfort
Littles
Little Things
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
Anyone Who Does Not See The Vanity Of The World Is Very Vain Himself. So Who Does Not See It, Apart From Young People Whose Lives Are All Noise, Diversions, And Thoughts For The Future? But Take Away Their Diversion And You Will See Them Bored To Extinction. Then They Feel Their Nullity Without Recognizing It, For Nothing Could Be More Wretched Than To Be Intolerably Depressed As Soon As One Is Reduced To Introspection With No Means Of Diversion.
Mean
Vanity
People
Continuous Eloquence Wearies. Grandeur Must Be Abandoned To Be Appreciated. Continuity In Everything Is Unpleasant. Cold Is Agreeable, That We May Get Warm.
May
Cold
Appreciated
If A Man Is Not Made For God, Why Is He Happy Only In God?
Faith
Men
Made
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.
Writing
Wish
Desire
The Stream Is Always Purer At Its Source.
Purity
Source
Streams
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
A Jester, A Bad Character.
Character
Jester
Bad Character
Those We Call The Ancients Were Really New In Everything.
The Supreme Function Of Reason Is To Show Man That Some Things Are Beyond Reason.
Math
Men
Logic
Mutual Cheating Is The Foundation Of Society.
Cheating
Foundation
Mutual
Force Rules The World-not Opinion; But It Is Opinion That Makes Use Of Force.
Use
World
Opinion
Too Much Pleasure Disagrees With Us. Too Many Concords Are Annoying In Music; Too Many Benefits Irritate Us; We Wish To Have The Wherewithal To Overpay Our Debts.
Wish
Debt
Benefits
For Nature Is An Image Of Grace, And Visible Miracles Are Images Of The Invisible.
Nature
Miracle
Grace
We Are Never In Search Of Things, But Always In Search Of The Search.
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
What Part Of Us Feels Pleasure? Is It Our Hand, Our Arm, Our Flesh, Or Our Blood? It Must Obviously Be Something Immaterial.
Blood
Hands
Flesh
That We Must Love One God Only Is A Thing So Evident That It Does Not Require Miracles To Prove It.
Miracle
Doe
Prove It
There Is No Arena In Which Vanity Displays Itself Under Such A Variety Of Forms As In Conversation.
Vanity
Arena
Form
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
If God Does Not Exist, One Loses Nothing By Believing In Him Anyway, While If He Does Exist, One Stands To Lose Everything By Not Believing.
Religious
Believe
Doe
Seeing Too Much To Deny And Too Little To Be Sure, I Am In A State To Be Pitied.
Littles
Too Much
Deny
A Man Does Not Show His Greatness By Being At One Extremity, But Rather By Touching Both At Once.
Greatness
Men
Touching
Those Who Are Accustomed To Judge By Feeling Do Not Understand The Process Of Reasoning, Because They Want To Comprehend At A Glance And Are Not Used To Seeking For First Principles. Those, On The Other Hand, Who Are Accustomed To Reason From First Principles Do Not Understand Matters Of Feeling At All, Because They Look For First Principles And Are Unable To Comprehend At A Glance.
Math
Hands
Judging
Kind Words Do Not Cost Much. Yet They Accomplish Much.
Kindness
Character
Accomplish Nothing
It Is Not Possible To Have Reasonable Grounds For Not Believing In Miracles.
Believe
Miracle
Reasonable
To Be Mistaken In Believing That The Christian Religion Is True Is No Great Loss To Anyone; But How Dreadful To Be Mistaken In Believing It To Be False!
Christian
Believe
Loss
Nature Has Some Perfections To Show That She Is The Image Of God, And Some Defects To Show That She Is Only His Image.
Nature
Order
Perfection
The War Existing Between The Senses And Reason.
War
Conflict
Reason
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
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
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.
Inspirational
Being Yourself
Discovery
Man's Greatness Is Great In That He Knows Himself Wretched. A Tree Does Not Know Itself Wretched. It Is Then Being Wretched To Know Oneself Wretched; But It Is Being Great To Know That One Is Wretched.
Greatness
Men
Tree
Perfect Clarity Would Profit The Intellect But Damage The Will.
Math
Perfect
Damage
It Is Your Own Assent To Yourself, And The Constant Voice Of Your Own Reason, And Not Of Others, That Should Make You Believe.
Believe
Voice
Belief
We Must Learn Our Limits. We Are All Something, But None Of Us Are Everything.
Wisdom
Addiction
Limits
All Mankind's Troubles Are Caused By One Single Thing, Which Is Their Inability To Sit Quietly.
Life
Inability
Trouble
One Of The Greatest Artifices The Devil Uses To Engage Men In Vice And Debauchery, Is To Fasten Names Of Contempt On Certain Virtues, And Thus Fill Weak Souls With A Foolish Fear Of Passing For Scrupulous, Should They Desire To Put Them In Practice.
Men
Practice
Names
The Only Thing Which Consoles For Our Miseries Is Diversion, And Yet This Is The Greatest Of Our Miseries. For It Is This Which Principally Hinders Us From Reflecting Upon Ourselves And Which Makes Us Imperceptibly Ruin Ourselves.
Sadness
Reflecting Upon
Ruins
Things Are Always At Their Best In Their Beginning.
New Beginnings
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
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.
Fog
Weather
Connections
Two Similar Faces, Neither Of Which Alone Causes Laughter, Use Laughter When They Are Together, By Their Resemblance.
Laughter
Two
Together
The Christian Religion Teaches Me Two Points-that There Is A God Whom Men Can Know, And That Their Nature Is So Corrupt That They Are Unworthy Of Him.
Christian
Men
Two
Who Can Doubt That We Exist Only To Love? Disguise It, In Fact, As We Will, We Love Without Intermission... We Live Not A Moment Exempt From Its Influence.
Love
Doubt
Facts
Brave Deeds Are Wasted When Hidden.
Brave
Deeds
Let Man Then Contemplate Nature In Full And Lofty Majesty, And Turn His Eyes Away From The Mean Objects Which Surround Him. Let Him Look At The Dazzling Light Hung Aloft As An Eternal Lamp To Lighten The Universe; Let Him Behold The Earth, A Mere Dot Compared With The Vast Circuit Which That Orb Describes, And Stand Amazed To Find That The Vast Circuit Itself Is But A Very Fine Point Compared With The Orbit Traced By The Starts As They Roll Their Course On High.
Mean
Eye
Men
We Sometimes Learn More From The Sight Of Evil Than From An Example Of Good; And It Is Well To Accustom Ourselves To Profit By The Evil Which Is So Common, While That Which Is Good Is So Rare.
Sight
Evil
Example
In Difficult Times Carry Something Beautiful In Your Heart.
Beautiful
Heart
Difficult Times
The Eternal Being Is Forever If He Is At All.
God
Forever
Eternal
He Who Cannot Believe Is Cursed, For He Reveals By His Unbelief That God Has Not Chosen To Give Him Grace.
Believe
Giving
Grace
All Is One, All Is Different. How Many Natures Exist In Man? How Many Vocations? And By What Chance Does Each Man Ordinarily Choose What He Has Heard Praised?
Men
Doe
Different
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
The Best Defense Against Logic Is Ignorance.
Ignorance
Math
Defense
Without Jesus Christ Man Must Be In Vice And Misery With Jesus Christ Man Is Free From Vice And Misery In Him Is All Our Virtue And All Our Happiness. Apart From Him There Is But Vice, Misery, Darkness, Death, Despair.
Jesus
Men
Darkness
God Is, Or He Is Not." But To Which Side Shall We Incline? Reason Can Decide Nothing Here. There Is An Infinite Chaos Which Separated Us. A Game Is Being Played At The Extremity Of This Infinite Distance Where Heads Or Tails Will Turn Up. What Will You Wager?
God
Distance
Games
The Eternal Silence Of These Infinite Spaces Frightens Me.
Science
Space
Silence
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
We Are Only Falsehood, Duplicity, Contradiction; We Both Conceal And Disguise Ourselves From Ourselves.
Lying
Duplicity
Dishonesty
It Is The Heart Which Perceives God And Not The Reason.
Heart
Math
Reason
Il Est Non Seulement Impossible, Mais Inutile De Conna|"tre Dieu Sans Je Sus-christ. It Is Not Only Impossible, But Also Useless To Recognize God Without Jesus.
Jesus
Useless
Impossible
That Something So Obvious As The Vanity Of The World Should Be So Little Recognized That People Find It Odd And Surprising To Be Told That It Is Foolish To Seek Greatness; That Is Most Remarkable.
Greatness
Vanity
People
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.]
Queens
Use
World
Nothing Gives Rest But The Sincere Search For Truth.
Giving
Vision
Sincere
Nothing Is More Dastardly Than To Act With Bravado Toward God.
God
Bravery
Cowardice
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
Il N'est Pas Certain Que Tout Soit Incertain. (translation: It Is Not Certain That Everything Is Uncertain.)
Uncertain
Certain
Translations
E? Loquence Quipersuade Par Douceur, Non Par Empire, En Tyran, Non En Roi. Eloquence Should Persuade Gently, Not By Force Or Like A Tyrant Or King.
Kings
Tyrants
Roi
Muhammad Established A Religion By Putting His Enemies To Death; Jesus Christ By Commanding His Followers To Lay Down Their Lives.
Jesus
Enemy
Islam
The Philosophers Talk To You About The Dignity Of Man, And They Tempt You To Pride, Or They Talk To You About The Misery Of Man, And They Tempt You To Despair.
Pride
Men
Despair
Not To Be Mad Is Another Form Of Madness
Inspirational
Mad
Madness
Let Us Weigh The Gain And The Loss, In Wagering That God Is. Consider These Alternatives: If You Win, You Win All, If You Lose You Lose Nothing. Do Not Hesitate, Then, To Wager That He Is.
Loss
Winning
Lost Friendship
The Church Limits Her Sacramental Services To The Faithful. Christ Gave Himself Upon The Cross A Ransom For All.
Faithful
Church
Ransom
It Is Impossible On Reasonable Grounds To Disbelieve Miracles.
Miracle
Impossible
Reasonable
The Charm Of Fame Is So Great That We Like Every Object To Which It Is Attached, Even Death.
Reputation
Fame
Charm
Those Who Make Antitheses By Forcing The Sense Are Like Men Who Make False Windows For The Sake Of Symmetry. Their Rule Is Not To Speak Justly, But To Make Accurate Figures.
Men
Style
Sake
The Exterior Must Be Joined To The Interior To Obtain Anything From God, That Is To Say, We Must Kneel, Pray With The Lips, And Soon, In Order That Proud Man, Who Would Not Submit Himself To God, May Be Now Subject To The Creature.
Men
Order
Religion
When A Man Who Accepts The Christian Doctrine Lives Unworthily Of It, It Is Much Clearer To Say He Is A Bad Christian Than To Say He Is Not A Christian.
Christian
Men
Doctrine
Everyone, Without Exception, Is Searching For Happiness.
Happiness
Searching For Happiness
Exception
Love Knows No Limit To Its Endurance, No End To Its Trust, No Fading Of Its Hope; It Can Outlast Anything. Love Still Stands When All Else Has Fallen.
Endurance
Fading
Limits
Nature Confuses The Skeptics And Reason Confutes The Dogmatists
Nature
Reason
Skeptic
Little Things Console Us Because Little Things Afflict Us.
Inspirational
Littles
Little Things
Two Things Control Men's Nature, Instinct And Experience.
Nature
Men
Two
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