Blaise Pascal Quotes

We have no firm hold on any knowledge or philosophy that can lift us out of our difficulties.

We are here and it is now. Further than that, all human knowledge is moonshine.

We cannot wish for that we know not.

I cannot discover that anyone knows enough to say definitely what is and what is not possible.

There are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns – the ones we don’t know we don’t know.

There is only one thing about which I am certain, and that is that there is very little about which one can be certain.

Nobody really knows everything, and they can only assume.

All my life I believed I knew something. But then one strange day came when I realized that I knew nothing, yes, I knew nothing. And so words became void of meaning. I have arrived too late at ultimate uncertainty.

The goal is to know how not-to-know.

No one knows anything for sure.

Close beside my knowledge lies my black ignorance.

In the world we live in, what we know and what we don't know are like Siamese twins, inseparable, existing in a state of confusion.

In these times I don't, in a manner of speaking, know what I want; perhaps I don't want what I know and want what I don't know.

The only thing I know for sure is how much I do not know.

We know a great deal, but our ignorance is sobering and boundless. With each step forward, with each problem which we solve, we not only discover new and unsolved problems, but we also discover that where we believed that we were standing on firm and safe ground, all things are, in truth, insecure and in a state of flux.

Maybe we're the fools, for thinking we know things. Maybe humans are the only ones who can deal with the fact that nothing can ever be known at all.

You'll never know everything about anything, especially something you love.

Three causes especially have excited the discontent of mankind; and, by impelling us to seek remedies for the irremediable, have bewildered us in a maze of madness and error. These are death, toil, and the ignorance of the future.

I don't consider myself an expert in the why.

We suffer only until we realize that we can't know anything.

Man is a wonder to himself; he can neither govern nor know himself.

Our ignorance can be divided into problems and mysteries. When we face a problem, we may not know its solution, but we have insight, increasing knowledge, and an inkling of what we are looking for. When we face a mystery, however, we can only stare in wonder and bewilderment, not knowing what an explanation would even look like.

...not everyone is willing to defend a position of 'not knowing.' There is no virtue in ignorance for its own sake.

But there’s a reason we recognize Hamlet as a masterpiece: it’s that Shakespeare told us the truth, and people so rarely tell us the truth in this rise and fall here [indicates blackboard]. The truth is, we know so little about life, we don’t really know what the good news is and what the bad news is.

Every year there's a few more things I'm not sure of. I've decided that a wide-ranging uncertainty is the mark of the true maturity of man.