Blaise Pascal Quotes

Nothing is so easy as to deceive one's self; for what we wish, that we readily believe; but such expectations are often inconsistent with the real state of things.

The art of living is the art of knowing how to believe lies.

It is wrong always, everywhere, and for everyone, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence.

Wrong believing puts people in a prison. Even though there are no physical shackles, wrong believing causes its inmates to behave as though they were incarcerated in a maximum-security penitentiary.

When a man has once loved a woman he will do anything for her except continue to love her.

Rationalization may be defined as self-deception by reasoning.

Those of our people who do not study history can be duped into believing anything.

Nothing is easier than self-deceit, since what each man wishes, that he also believes to be true.

The longer you hold a belief, the less likely it is to be true.

We are always inclined to love and care for that which we know.

I have discovered that my interest in my dear pupil, Mabel, has ripened into a far deeper feeling than that of mere friendship. In fact, I know that I have learned to love her very sincerely.

I think a certain degree of pessimism is actually helpful to love.

We are in the middle of a big swamp of ignorance that is taught by a lot of nonsense, propaganda, absurdity, amalgams. I have a hard time listening to any speech. You feel like you want to stop the TV every two seconds to rephrase them, because it's lie after lie, turning stuff upside down, and you can't follow that. That's the trap.

You can never beat your own mind when it plays tricks on you.

I felt that everyone had the same sentiments when it came to love that I did. I felt like if you really cared for somebody, then that was it. It never occurred to me that people could lie about the way they felt about you. I had to learn that the hard way.

Finding another person to love is finding another person to lose.

The worst deluded are the self-deluded.

Reason is the illusion of reality

People are more likely to believe a big lie than a small one.

The trouble with illusions is that you aren't aware you have any until they are taken away from you.

Where we have strong emotions, we're liable to fool ourselves.

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.

Belief and delusion are incestuous siblings.

One is easily fooled by that which one loves.

It is not customary to love what one has.