Blaise Pascal Quotes

On the road halfway between faith and criticism stands the inn of reason. Reason is faith in what can be understood without faith, but it's still a faith, since to understand presupposes that there's something understandable.

The word 'belief' is a difficult thing for me. I don't believe. I must have a reason for a certain hypothesis. Either I know a thing, and then I know it - I don't need to believe it.

Faith... must be enforced by reason... when faith becomes blind it dies.

We cannot infer that because sciences of things divine and human are full of controversies and quarrels, therefore their whole subject-matter is uncertain ; for there have been many persons so enamoured of contradiction, as to turn into ridicule geometrical axioms.

We need wisdom the most when we believe in it the least.

The agnostic does not simply say, "l do not know." He goes another step, and he says, with great emphasis, that you do not know. He insists that you are trading on the ignorance of others, and on the fear of others. He is not satisfied with saying that you do not know, -- he demonstrates that you do not know, and he drives you from the field of fact -- he drives you from the realm of reason -- he drives you from the light, into the darkness of conjecture -- into the world of dreams and shadows, and he compels you to say, at last, that your faith has no foundation in fact.

God forbid that Truth should be confined to Mathematical Demonstration!

I don't want to believe. I want to know.

You can only find truth with logic if you have already found truth without it.

Doubt is the vestibule through which all must pass before they can enter into the temple of wisdom.

I am aware that a philosopher's ideas are not subject to the judgment of ordinary persons, because it is his endeavour to seek the truth in all things, to the extent permitted to human reason by God.

I was bold in the pursuit of knowledge, never fearing to follow truth and reason to whatever results they led, and bearding every authority which stood in their way.

Faith is not uprooted by dialectic proof; it must already be deeply shaken by other causes to be unable to withstand the shock of argument.

I will live by the standard of reason, and if thinking in accordance with reason takes me to perdition, then I will go to hell with my reason rather than to heaven without it.

It is always more difficult to fight against faith than against knowledge.

The first precept was never to accept a thing as true until I knew it as such without a single doubt.

Faith is an island in the setting sun, But proof is the bottom line for everyone.

If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts, but if he will content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties.

Science stands for rational thought, faith for superstition and unreason.

The stupidity of people comes from having an answer for everything. The wisdom of the novel comes from having a question for everything.

All that I say is, examine, inquire. Look into the nature of things. Search out the grounds of your opinions, the for and against. Know why you believe, understand what you believe, and possess a reason for the faith that is in you.

Faith is a poison that paralyzes the mind. In all the days of your life, seek knowledge!

Faith feels itself secure neither with universal consent, nor with tradition, nor with authority. It seeks support of its enemy, reason.

Doubt is the offspring of knowledge: the savage never doubts at all.

I'm a rationalist and a skeptic, someone who safely separates faith from reason.