Blaise Pascal Quotes

We fear to know the fearsome and unsavory aspects of ourselves, but we fear even more to know the godlike in ourselves.

A great man la an abstraction of some one excellence; but whoever fancies himself an abstraction of excellence, so far from being great, may be sure that he is a blockhead, equally ignorant of excellence or defect of himself or others.

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.

I have never seen a greater monster or miracle in the world than myself.

I may be as bad as the worst, but, thank God, I am as good as the best.

But possibly I am something more than I suppose myself to be.

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.

In other living creatures the ignorance of themselves is nature, but in men it is a vice.

When we realize that we are both wretched and beautiful, we are freed up to see others the same way.

One realizes after a long time that, actually, we are contradictory, all of us.

And some men are as ignorant of what they do when awake as they are forgetful of what they do when asleep.

The consequence is that every man comes to know himself solely in terms of his power for defence and attack.

To say that man is a compound of strength and weakness, light and darkness, smallness and greatness, is not to indict him, it is to define him.

I have known men who could see through the motivations of others with the skill of a clairvoyant; only to prove blind to their own mistakes. I have been one of those men.

Man is so great that his greatness appears even in the consciousness of his misery. A tree does not know itself to be miserable. It is true that it is misery indeed to know one's self to be miserable; but then it is greatness also. In this way, all man's miseries go to prove his greatness. They are the miseries of a mighty potentate, of a dethroned monarch.

I guess he'll have to figure out someday that he is supposed to have this dark side, that it is part of what it means to be human, to have the darkness just as much as the light- that in fact the dark parts make the light visible; without them, the light would disappear. But I guess he has to figure other stuff out first, like how to keep his neck from flopping all over the place and how to sit up.

I am enormously wise and abysmally ignorant.

When you think the night has seen your mind, That inside your twisted and unkind, Let me stand to show that you are blind. Please put down you hands cause I see you. I'll be you mirror.

Your inability to see yourself clearly is what's keeping you alive.

We have all forgotten what we really are. All that we call common sense and rationality and practicality and positivism only means that for certain dead levels of our life we forget that we have forgotten. All that we call spirit and art and ecstasy only means that for one awful instant we remember that we forget.

The world we live in is made up of polar opposites, black/white, male/female, night/day, and a human being who possesses both masculine and feminine – vulnerability and strength – is intriguing to us, whether they be a singer or actor or dancer, intrigues us, because THAT Is who we really are.

Be straight with yourself just to maybe save a few more people from being stupid and being ignorant.

If a man really knew himself he would utterly despise the ignorant notions others might form on a subject in which he had such matchless opportunities for observation.

I am old enough to know only too well my good and bad qualities, which were often one in the same.

Every one is least known to himself, and it is very difficult for a man to know himself.