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Words Differently Arranged Have A Different Meaning, And Meanings Differently Arranged Have Different Effects.
-Blaise Pascal
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Words Differently Arranged Have

Blaise Pascal
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Words Differently Arranged Have A Different Meaning, And Meanings Differently Arranged Have Different Effects.

Understanding the Quote: "words differently arranged have a different meaning, and meanings differently arranged have..."

This quote by Blaise Pascal reflects deeply on the theme of different. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Different, Effects, Different Meanings, 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 different and effects. 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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God Has Given Us Evidence Sufficiently Clear To Convince Those With An Open Heart And Mind.
Heart
Mind
Given
Orthodoxy On One Side Of The Pyrenees May Be Heresy On The Other.
Sides
May
Orthodoxy
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
By Thought I Embrace The Universe.
Embrace
Universe
Chess Is The Gymnasium Of The Mind.
Mind
Chess
Gymnasiums
If You Do Not Love Too Much, You Do Not Love Enough.
Too Much
Enough
Ifs
Look For The Truth, It Wants To Be Found.
Looks
Want
Found
(man,) The Glory And The Scandal Of The Universe.
Men
Scandal
Glory
Little Things Console Us Because Little Things Afflict Us.
Inspirational
Littles
Little Things
The Heart Has Its Reasons Of Which Reason Knows Nothing.
Love
Inspirational
Life
It Is A Dangerous Experiment To Call In Gratitude As An Ally To Love. Love Is A Debt Which Inclination Always Pays, Obligation Never.
Gratitude
Love Is
Allies
The Eternal Silence Of These Infinite Spaces Frightens Me.
Science
Space
Silence
I Have Made This Letter Longer Than Usual, Only Because I Have Not Had The Time To Make It Shorter.
Time
Learning
Usual
Opinion Is The Queen Of The World.
Queens
World
Opinion
Those We Call The Ancients Were Really New In Everything.
We Are Only Troubled By The Fears Which We, And Not Nature, Give Ourselves, For They Add To The State In Which We Are The Passions Of The State In Which We Are Not.
Powerful
Giving
There Is Enough Light For Those Who Only Desire To See, And Enough Obscurity For Those Who Have A Contrary Disposition
Light
Desire
Obscurity
There Was Once In Man A True Happiness Of Which There Now Remain To Him Only The Mark And Empty Trace, Which He In Vain Tries To Fill From All His Surroundings, Seeking From Things Absent The Help He Does Not Obtain In Things Present.
Happiness
Men
Trying
We Never Love A Person, But Only Qualities.
Love
Quality
Persons
Man Governs Himself More By Impulse Than Reason
Men
Reason
Impulse
It Is Not Good To Be Too Free. It Is Not Good To Have All One Wants.
Freedom
Greed
Want
The Christian's God Does Not Merely Consist Of A God Who Is The Author Of Mathematical Truths And The Order Of The Elements. The God Of Abraham, The God Of Isaac, The God Of Jacob, The God Of The Christians, Is A God Of Love And Consolation.
Christian
Order
Doe
Reverend Fathers, My Letters Did Not Usually Follow Each Other At Such Close Intervals, Nor Were They So Long.... This One Would Not Be So Long Had I But The Leisure To Make It Shorter.
Father
Math
Long
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
The Origins Of Disputes Between Philosophers Is, That One Class Of Them Have Undertaken To Raise Man By Displaying His Greatness, And The Other To Debase Him By Showing His Miseries.
Greatness
Men
Class
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!
Journey
Sea
Battle
La Dernie' Re Chose Qu'on Trouve En Faisant Un Ouvrage, Est De Savoir Celle Qu'il Faut Mettre La Premie' Re. The Last Thing One Discovers In Composing A Work Iswhat To Put First.
Lasts
Firsts
Composing
Imagination Magnifies Small Objects With Fantastic Exaggeration Until They Fill Our Soul, And With Bold Insolence Cuts Down Great Things To Its Own Size, As When Speaking Of God.
Cutting
Small Objects
Imagination
You Gave Me Health That I Might Serve You; And So Often I Failed To Use My Good Health In Your Service. Now You Send Me Sickness In Order To Correct Me Grant That, Having Ignored The Things Of Spirit When My Body Was Vigorous, I May Now Enjoy Spiritual Sweetness While My Body Groans With Pain.
Spiritual
Pain
Order
I Cannot Forgive Descartes. In All His Philosophy He Would Have Been Quite Willing To Dispense With God. But He Had To Make Him Give A Fillip To Set The World In Motion; Beyond This, He Has No Further Need Of God.
Philosophy
Giving
Needs
It Is Dangerous To Explain Too Clearly To Man How Like He Is To The Animals Without Pointing Out His Greatness. It Is Also Dangerous To Make Too Much Of His Greatness Without His Vileness. It Is Still More Dangerous To Leave Him In Ignorance Of Both, But It Is Most Valuable To Represent Both To Him. Man Must Not Be Allowed To Believe That He Is Equal Either To Animals Or To Angels, Nor To Be Unaware Of Either, But He Must Know Both.
Believe
Ignorance
Angel
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
The Finite Is Annihilated In The Presence Of The Infinite, And Becomes A Pure Nothing. So Our Spirit Before God, So Our Justice Before Divine Justice.
Divine Justice
Spirit
Infinite
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
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
He That Takes Truth For His Guide, And Duty For His End, May Safely Trust To God's Providence To Lead Him Aright.
Truth
May
Trust In God
Lust Is The Source Of All Our Actions, And Humanity.
Humanity
Lust
Our Actions
We Sail Within A Vast Sphere, Ever Drifting In Uncertainty, Driven From End To End.
Inspirational
Funny
Sailing
When A Soldier Complains Of His Hard Life (or A Labourer, Etc.) Try Giving Him Nothing To Do.
Giving
Soldier
Hard Life
When A Natural Discourse Paints A Passion Or An Effect, One Feels Within Oneself The Truth Of What One Reads, Which Was There Before, Although One Did Not Know It. Hence One Is Inclined To Love Him Who Makes Us Feel It, For He Has Not Shown Us His Own Riches, But Ours. ...such Community Of Intellect That We Have With Him Necessarily Inclines The Heart To Love.
Life
Passion
Heart
We Feel Neither Extreme Heat Nor Extreme Cold; Qualities That Are In Excess Are So Much At Variance With Our Feelings That They Are Impalpable: We Do Not Feel Them, Though We Suffer From Their Effects.
Feelings
Suffering
Quality
Man's Sensitivity To The Little Things And Insensitivity To The Greatest Are The Signs Of A Strange Disorder.
Men
Littles
Strange
Few Men Speak Humbly Of Humility, Chastely Of Chastity, Skeptically Of Skepticism.
Humility
Pride
Math
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
The Eternal Being Is Forever If He Is At All.
God
Forever
Eternal
All Man's Troubles Come From Not Knowing How To Sit Still In One Room.
Blessing
Men
Knowing
Kind Words Produce Their Images On Men's Souls.
Men
Soul
Kind
Distraction Is The Only Thing That Consoles Us For Our Miseries. Yet It Is Itself The Greatest Of Our Miseries.
Misery
Distraction
Console
The Sole Cause Of Man's Unhappiness Is That He Does Not Know How To Stay Quietly In His Room.
Math
Men
Doe
Noble Deeds That Are Concealed Are Most Esteemed.
Inspirational
Life
Deeds And Words
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
There Is A God-shaped Hole In The Life Of Every Man.
Men
Holes
Every Man
We Conceal It From Ourselves In Vain - We Must Always Love Something. In Those Matters Seemingly Removed From Love, The Feeling Is Secretly To Be Found, And Man Cannot Possibly Live For A Moment Without It.
Love
Wedding
Men
There Is Nothing So Insupportable To Man As To Be In Entire Repose, Without Passion, Occupation, Amusement, Or Application. Then It Is That He Feels His Own Nothingness, Isolation, Insignificance, Dependent Nature, Powerless, Emptiness. Immediately There Issue From His Soul Ennui, Sadness, Chagrin, Vexation, Despair.
Sadness
Passion
Men
It Is Not Possible To Have Reasonable Grounds For Not Believing In Miracles.
Believe
Miracle
Reasonable
Education Produces Natural Intuitions, And Natural Intuitions Are Erased By Education.
Education
Intuition
Natural
Is It Courage In A Dying Man To Go, In Weakness And In Agony, To Affront An Almighty And Eternal God?
Death
Men
Agony
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
Habit Is A Second Nature That Destroys The First. But What Is Nature? Why Is Habit Not Natural? I Am Very Much Afraid That Nature Itself Is Only A First Habit, Just As Habit Is A Second Nature.
Nature
Firsts
Habit
We Know Truth, Not Only By The Reason, But Also By The Heart.
Wisdom
Truth
Heart
The More I See Of Mankind, The More I Prefer My Dog.
Dog
Mankind
My Dog
The Consciousness Of The Falsity Of Present Pleasures, And The Ignorance Of The Vanity Of Absent Pleasures, Cause Inconstancy.
Ignorance
Vanity
Causes
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
All The Maxims Have Been Written. It Only Remains To Put Them Into Practice.
Practice
Maxims
Remains
It Is Not From Space That I Must Seek My Dignity, But From The Government Of My Thought. I Shall Have No More If I Possess Worlds. By Space The Universe Encompasses And Swallows Me Up Like An Atom; By Thought I Comprehend The World.
Government
Space
Atoms
Il N'y A Que Deux Sortes D'hommes: Les Uns Justes, Qui Se Croient Pe Cheurs; Les Autres Pe Cheurs, Qui Se Croient Justes. There Are Only Two Types Of People: The Virtuous Who Believe Themselves To Be Sinners And The Sinners Who Believe Themselves To Be Virtuous.
Believe
Two
People
The God Of The Infinite Is The God Of The Infinitesimal.
Infinite
When One Does Not Love Too Much, One Does Not Love Enough.
Doe
Too Much
Enough
If Magistrates Had True Justice, And If Physicians Had The True Art Of Healing, They Would Have No Occasion For Square Caps; The Majesty Of These Sciences Would Itself Be Venerable Enough.
Art
Healing
Squares
I Condemn Equally Those Who Choose To Praise Man, Those Who Choose To Condemn Him And Those Who Choose To Divert Themselves, And I Can Only Approve Of Those Who Seek With Groans.
Men
Praise
I Can
Either Christianity Is True Or It's False. If You Bet That It's True, And You Believe In God And Submit To Him, Then If It Is True, You've Gained God, Heaven, And Everything Else. If It's False, You've Lost Nothing, But You've Had A Good Life Marked By Peace And The Illusion That Ultimately, Everything Makes Sense. If You Bet That Christianity Is Not True, And It's False, You've Lost Nothing. But If You Bet That It's False, And It Turns Out To Be True, You've Lost Everything And You Get To Spend Eternity In Hell.
Good Life
Believe
Heaven
When Malice Has Reason On Its Side, It Looks Forth Bravely, And Displays That Reason In All Its Luster. When Austerity And Self-denial Have Not Realized True Happiness, And The Soul Returns To The Dictates Of Nature, The Reaction Is Fearfully Extravagant.
Self
Soul
Austerity
Imagination Decides Everything.
Inspirational
Teacher
Imagination
There Is A Lot Of Difference Between Tempting And Leading Into Error. God Tempts But Does Not Lead Into Error. To Tempt Is To Provide Opportunities For Us To Do Certain Things If We Do Not Love God, But Putting Us Under No Necessity To Do So. To Lead Into Error Is To Compel A Man Necessarily To Conclude And Follow A Falsehood.
Opportunity
Men
Errors
I Have Spent Much Time In The Study Of The Abstract Sciences; But The Paucity Of Persons With Whom You Can Communicate On Such Subjects Disgusted Me With Them. When I Began To Study Man, I Saw That These Abstract Sciences Are Not Suited To Him, And That In Diving Into Them, I Wandered Farther From My Real Object Than Those Who Knew Them Not, And I Forgave Them For Not Having Attended To These Things. I Expected Then, However, That I Should Find Some Companions In The Study Of Man, Since It Was So Specifically A Duty. I Was In Error. There Are Fewer Students Of Man Than Of Geometry.
Real
Communication
Science
The Property Of Power Is To Protect.
Power
Protect
Property
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
Not To Be Mad Is Another Form Of Madness
Inspirational
Mad
Madness
To Find Recreation In Amusement Is Not Happiness.
Happiness
Greatest Love
Amusement
The Only Shame Is To Have None.
Guilt
Shame
Men Despise Religion. They Hate It And Are Afraid It May Be True.
Fear
Hate
Men
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
A Little Thing Comforts Us Because A Little Thing Afflicts Us.
Comfort
Littles
Little Things
All Err The More Dangerously Because Each Follows A Truth. Their Mistake Lies Not In Following A Falsehood But In Not Following Another Truth.
Mistake
Lying
Math
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
The Sole Cause Of All Human Misery Is The Inability Of People To Sit Quietly In Their Rooms.
Science
People
Inability
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
Habit Is A Second Nature, Which Destroys The First.
Nature
Firsts
Habit
Things Have Different Qualities, And The Soul Different Inclinations; For Nothing Is Simple Which Is Presented To The Soul, And The Soul Never Presents Itself Simply To Any Object. Hence It Comes That We Weep And Laugh At The Same Thing.
Simple
Laughing
Soul
The Best Defense Against Logic Is Ignorance.
Ignorance
Math
Defense
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
To Call A King "prince" Is Pleasing, Because It Diminishes His Rank.
Kings
Diminish
Perfect Clarity Would Profit The Intellect But Damage The Will.
Math
Perfect
Damage
Too Much And Too Little Wine. Give Him None, He Cannot Find Truth; Give Him Too Much, The Same.
Wine
Giving
Littles
Excuse Me, Pray." Without That Excuse I Would Not Have Known There Was Anything Amiss.
Apology
Praying
Excuse
We Run Carelessly To The Precipice, After We Have Put Something Before Us To Prevent Us Seeing It.
Running
Aging
Precipice
The Multitude Which Does Not Reduce Itself To Unity Is Confusion.
Confusion
Confusing
Unity
Muhammad Established A Religion By Putting His Enemies To Death; Jesus Christ By Commanding His Followers To Lay Down Their Lives.
Jesus
Enemy
Islam
It Is Not In Montaigne, But In Myself, That I Find All That I See In Him.
Reading
Literature
By A Peculiar Prerogative, Not Only Each Individual Is Making Daily Advances In The Sciences, And May Make Advances In Morality (which Is The Science, By Way Of Eminence, Of Living Well And Being Happy), But All Mankind Together Is Making A Continual Progress In Proportion As The Universe Grows Older. So That The Whole Human Race, During The Course Of So Many Ages, May Be Considered As One Man Who Never Ceases To Live And Learn.
Men
Race
Progress
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
We Like Security: We Like The Pope To Be Infallible In Matters Of Faith, And Grave Doctors To Be So In Moral Questions So That We Can Feel Reassured.
Doctors
Matter
Moral
When Some Passion Or Effect Is Described In A Natural Style, We Find Within Ourselves The Truth Of What We Hear, Without Knowing It Was There.
Passion
Knowing
Style
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
All The Miseries Of Mankind Come From One Thing, Not Knowing How To Remain Alone.
Knowing
Misery
Mankind
Making Fun Of Philosophy Is Really Philosophising.
Art
Fun
Philosophy
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
A Man Does Not Show His Greatness By Being At One Extremity, But Rather By Touching Both At Once.
Greatness
Men
Touching
If You Believe In God You Are At No Disadvantage In This Life, And At Considerable Advantage In The Next. If You Do Not Believe, But Find In The Next That There Was A Next, You Are Most Unfortunate!
Spiritual
Believe
Next
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
Since We Cannot Know All That There Is To Be Known About Anything, We Ought To Know A Little About Everything.
Knowledge
Science
Littles
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 Gospel To Me Is Simply Irresistible.
Irresistible
The Last Function Of Reason Is To Recognize That There Are An Infinity Of Things Which Surpass It.
History
Lasts
Infinity
Fear Not, Provided You Fear; But If You Fear Not, Then Fear.
Fear Not
Ifs
Belief Is A Wise Wager. Granted That Faith Cannot Be Proved, What Harm Will Come To You If You Gamble On Its Truth And It Proves False? If You Gain, You Gain All; If You Lose, You Lose Nothing. Wager, Then, Without Hesitation, That He Exists.
Faith
Wise
Gains
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
Brave Deeds Are Wasted When Hidden.
Brave
Deeds
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
It Is Not Certain That Everything Is Uncertain.
Math
Intelligence
Uncertain
Nothing Is So Conformable To Reason As To Disavow Reason.
Reason
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
To Ridicule Philosophy Is Truly Philosophical. [fr., Se Moquer De La Philosophie C'est Vraiment Philosophe.]
Philosophy
Philosophical
Ridicule
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
Cold Words Freeze People, And Hot Words Scorch Them, And Bitter Words Make Them Bitter, And Wrathful Words Make Them Wrathful. Kind Words Also Produce Their Own Image On Men's Souls; And A Beautiful Image It Is. They Smooth, And Quiet, And Comfort The Hearer.
Beautiful
Men
People
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
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
You Corrupt Religion Either In Favour Of Your Friends, Or Against Your Enemies.
Enemy
Religion
Favour
How Can Anyone Lose Who Chooses To Become A Christian? If, When He Dies, There Turns Out To Be No God And His Faith Was In Vain, He Has Lost Nothing...if, However, There Is A God And A Heaven And A Hell. Then He Has Gained Heaven And His Skeptical Friends Have Lost Everything.
Christian
Heaven
Lost Everything
Most Of Man's Trouble Comes From His Inability To Be Still.
Men
Inability
Trouble
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
The Heart Has Its Reasons Of Which Reason Knows Nothing. We Feel It In A Thousand Things. I Say That The Heart Naturally Loves The Universal Being, And Naturally Loves Itself; And It Gives Itself To One Or The Other, And Hardens Itself Against One Or The Other, As It Chooses...it Is The Heart That Feels God, Not The Reason; This Is Faith.
Heart
Giving
Reason
He Who Cannot Believe Is Cursed, For He Reveals By His Unbelief That God Has Not Chosen To Give Him Grace.
Believe
Giving
Grace
Happiness Can Be Found Neither In Ourselves Nor In External Things, But In God And In Ourselves As United To Him.
Found
United
Contradiction Is Not A Sign Of Falsity, Nor The Lack Of Contradiction A Sign Of Truth.
Truth
Contradiction
Mathematics
The Gist Is That Good And Evil Are Foreordained. What Is Foreordained Comes Necessarily To Be After A Prior Act Of Divine Volition...rather, Everything Small And Large Is Written And Comes To Be In A Known And Expected Measure.
Evil
Gist
Divine
We Must Know Where To Doubt, Where To Feel Certain, Where To Submit. He Who Does Not Do So, Understands Not The Force Of Reason.
Doubt
Doe
Reason
Unless We Love The Truth We Cannot Know It.
Truth And Falsehood
Knows
Falsehood
Nature, Which Alone Is Good, Is Wholly Familiar And Common.
Common
Familiar
When We Are In Love We Seem To Ourselves Quite Different From What We Were Before.
Love
Inspiring
Inspirational Life
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
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
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.
Nature
Might
Speak
Truly It Is An Evil To Be Full Of Faults; But It Is A Still Greater Evil To Be Full Of Them And To Be Unwilling To Recognize Them, Since That Is To Add The Further Fault Of A Voluntary Illusion.
Evil
Add
Investing
I Can Approve Of Those Only Who Seek In Tears For Happiness.
Tears
I Can
Instead Of Complaining That God Had Hidden Himself, You Will Give Him Thanks For Having Revealed So Much Of Himself.
Giving
Complaining
Thanks
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
Jurisdiction Is Not Given For The Sake Of The Judge, But For That Of The Litigant.
Judging
Sake
Authority
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
All Mankind's Unhappiness Derives From One Thing: His Inability To Know How To Remain In Repose In One Room.
Inability
Rooms
Unhappiness
Le Silence Est La Plus Grande Perse Cution: Jamais Les Saints Ne Se Sont Tus. Silence Is The Greatest Of All Persecutions: No Saint Was Ever Silent.
Silence
Saint
Silent
Kind Words Do Not Cost Much. They Never Blister The Tongue Or Lips. They Make Other People Good-natured. They Also Produce Their Own Image On Men's Souls, And A Beautiful Image It Is.
Beautiful
Meaningful
Kindness
If Men Knew Themselves, God Would Heal And Pardon Them.
Men
Pardon
Heal
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
How Vain Is Painting, Which Is Admired For Reproducing The Likeness Of Things Whose Originals Are Not Admired.
Vanity
Painting
Vain
We Are Only Falsehood, Duplicity, Contradiction; We Both Conceal And Disguise Ourselves From Ourselves.
Lying
Duplicity
Dishonesty
Amusement That Is Excessive And Followed Only For Its Own Sake, Allures And Deceives Us.
Amusement
Sake
Deceiving
Man Is Neither Angel Nor Beast.
Angel
Men
Beast
Must We Kill To Prevent There Being Any Wicked? This Is To Make Both Parties Wicked Instead Of One.
Party
Wicked
Killing
Law, Without Force, Is Impotent.
Law
Lawyer
Force
We Must Kill Them In War, Just Because They Live Beyond The River. If They Lived On This Side, We Would Be Called Murderers.
Memorial Day
War
Rivers
Custom Creates The Whole Of Equity, For The Simple Reason That It Is Accepted.
Simple
Reason
Accepted
Man Is So Made That By Continually Telling Him He Is A Fool He Believes It, And By Continually Telling It To Himself He Makes Himself Believe It. For Man Holds An Inward Talk With Himself, Which It Pays Him To Regulate.
Believe
Men
Inward
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 Principles Of Pleasure Are Not Firm And Stable. They Are Different In All Mankind, And Variable In Every Particular With Such A Diversity That There Is No Man More Different From Another Than From Himself At Different Times.
Men
Diversity
Principles
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
That Which Makes Us Go So Far For Love Is That We Never Think That We Might Have Need Of Anything Besides That Which We Love.
Love Is
Thinking
Needs
The Heart Has Its Reasons, Which Reason Does Not Know. We Feel It In A Thousand Things. It Is The Heart Which Feels God, And Not Reason. This, Then, Is Perfect Faith: God Felt In The Heart.
Life
Heart
Perfect
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
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 Of Our Miseries Prove Our Greatness. They Are The Miseries Of A Dethroned Monarch.
Greatness
Misery
Prove
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
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
What Reason Have Atheists For Saying That We Cannot Rise Again? That What Has Never Been, Should Be, Or That What Has Been, Should Be Again? Is It More Difficult To Come Into Being Than To Return To It.
Easter
Atheist
Return
L'homme N'est Qu'un Sujet Plein D'erreur, Naturelle Et Ineffa C° Able Sans La Gra" Ce. Man Is Nothing But A Subject Full Of Natural Error That Cannot Be Eradicated Except Through Grace.
Men
Errors
Grace
Rivers Are Roads Which Move, And Which Carry Us Whither We Desire To Go.
Moving
Rivers
Water
Human Life Is Thus Only An Endless Illusion. Men Deceive And Flatter Each Other. No One Speaks Of Us In Our Presence As He Does When We Are Gone. Society Is Based On Mutual Hypocrisy.
Men
Hypocrisy
Doe
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
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
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
The More Intelligent A Man Is, The More Originality He Discovers In Others.
Intelligent
Men
Originality
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
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
Whilst In Speaking Of Human Things, We Say That It Is Necessary To Know Them Before We Love Can Them. The Saints On The Contrary Say In Speaking Of Divine Things That It Is Necessary To Love Them In Order To Know Them, And That We Only Enter Truth Through Charity.
Order
Saint
Charity
[on Vanity:] The Nose Of Cleopatra: If It Had Been Shorter, The Face Of The Earth Would Have Changed.
Beauty
Vanity
Noses
There Are Hardly Any Truths Upon Which We Always Remain Agreed, And Still Fewer Objects Of Pleasure Which We Do Not Change Every Hour, I Do Not Know Whether There Is A Means Of Giving Fixed Rules For Adapting Discourse To The Inconstancy Of Our Caprices.
Mean
Giving
Hours
Men Never Do Evil So Completely And Cheerfully As When They Do It From Religious Conviction.
Inspirational
Sad
Religious
Nothing Is So Intolerable To Man As Being Fully At Rest, Without A Passion, Without Business, Without Entertainment, Without Care.
Business
Passion
Men
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
Most Of The Evils Of Life Arise From Man's Being Unable To Sit Still In A Room.
Men
Evil
Rooms
Let Man Reawake And Consider What He Is Compared With The Reality Of Things; Regard Himself Lost In This Remote Corner Of Nature; And From The Tiny Cell Where He Lodges, To Wit The Universe, Weigh At Their True Worth Earth, Kingdoms, Towns, Himself. What Is A Man Face To Face With Infinity?
Reality
Men
Cells
Small Minds Are Concerned With The Extraordinary, Great Minds With The Ordinary.
Math
Ordinary Extraordinary
Intelligence
All Our Life Passes In This Way: We Seek Rest By Struggling Against Certain Obstacles, And Once They Are Overcome, Rest Proves Intolerable Because Of The Boredom It Produces.
Struggle
Blessing
Boredom
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
No Soul Of High Estate Can Take Pleasure In Slander. It Betrays A Weakness.
Betrayal
Soul
Weakness
[unbelievers] Think They Have Made Great Efforts To Get At The Truth When They Have Spent A Few Hours In Reading Some Book Out Of Holy Scripture, And Have Questioned Some Cleric About The Truths Of The Faith. After That, They Boast That They Have Searched In Books And Among Men In Vain.
Reading
Book
Men
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 Naturally Hate One Another. I Hold It A Fact, That If Men Knew Exactly What One Says Of The Other, There Would Not Be Four Friends In The World.
Hate
Men
World
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
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
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