Blaise Pascal Quotes

A man's most valuable trait is a judicious sense of what not to believe.

He thinks he believes only what he sees, but he is much better at believing than at seeing.

The "passion for incredulity" can produce as much self-deception as the uncritical will to believe.

Does a man of sense run after every silly tale of hobgoblins or fairies, and canvass particularly the evidence? I never knew anyone, that examined and deliberated about nonsense who did not believe it before the end of his enquiries.

Credulity without enquiry is a sure way to deceive oneself.

I'm disturbed when people let superstition, magical thinking, extreme conspiracy theories and so on blur their minds.

People are stupid; given proper motivation, almost anyone will believe almost anything. Because people are stupid, they will believe a lie because they want to believe it's true, or because they are afraid it might be true. People’s heads are full of knowledge, facts, and beliefs, and most of it is false, yet they think it all true. People are stupid; they can only rarely tell the difference between a lie and the truth, and yet they are confident they can, and so are all the easier to fool.

If someone doesn’t value evidence, what evidence are you going to provide that proves they should value evidence. If someone doesn’t value logic, what logical argument would you invoke to prove they should value logic?

I shall not commit the fashionable stupidity of regarding everything I cannot explain as a fraud.

Our credulity is a part of the imperfection of our natures. It is inherent in us to desire to generalize, when we ought, on the contrary, to guard ourselves very carefully from this tendency.

To avoid being drawn into error, keep a firm grip on the truth.

Why understand when you can believe?

People are stupid... They will believe a lie because they want to believe it's true, or because they're afraid it might be true.

Between craft and credulity, the voice of reason is stifled.

I believe that through its rational evaluation of truth and indifference to personal belief, science transcends religious and political divisions and so does bind us into a greater, more resilient whole.

Men are most apt to believe what they least understand.

There can be no merit in believing something which you can neither explain nor understand.

There is no lie that a man will not believe; and there is no man who does not believe many lies; and there is no man who believes only lies.

Credulity is belief in slight evidence, with no evidence, or against evidence.

It is almost impossible to exaggerate the proneness of the human mind to take miracles as evidence, and to seek for miracles as evidence.

I don't think you get a lot of comedians who are homeopaths. Comedy is essentially about not being hoodwinked.

Those who know nothing must believe everything.

It is equally a fault to believe all men or to believe none.

The first lesson about trusting your senses is: don't. Just because you believe something to be true, just because you know it's true, that doesn't mean it is true.

The scientist believes in proof without certainty, the bigot in certainty without proof.