Blaise Pascal Quotes

The discovery of truth is prevented more effectively, not by the false appearance things present and which mislead into error, not directly by weakness of the reasoning powers, but by preconceived opinion, by prejudice.

It is one thing to show a man that he is in an error, and another to put him in possession of the truth.

There are many levels of truth.

Irrationally held truths may be more harmful than reasoned errors.

It is of no help to us that there is an absolute truth of the matter of things because unfortunately, none of us are in a position to say definitively what that is - although we all think that we are.

There are mighty few people who think what they think they think.

There are no eternal facts, as there are no absolute truths.

The meaning of things lies not in the things themselves, but in our attitude towards them.

To convince someone of the truth, it is not enough to state it, but rather one must find the path from error to truth.

I have no interest in being wrong, so if I am, please correct me. I don't want to be wrong. There's nothing in it for you or for me to be wrong.

The world always makes the assumption that the exposure of an error is identical with the discovery of truth - that error and truth are simply opposite. They are nothing of the sort. What the world turns to, when it has been cured of one error, is usually simply another error, and maybe one worse than the first one.

I'd ask people to keep in mind the idea that if you really understand something, it's even more important for you to consider the possibility of your wrongness. Even if it takes someone dumber than you to point that out.

A new truth is a truth, an old error is an error.

Who is going to cast out an error to which he has given birth and replace it with an adopted truth?

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

The world is his who can see through its pretension. What deafness, what stone-blind custom, what overgrown error you behold, is there only by sufferance,--by your sufferance. See it to be a lie, and you have already dealt it its mortal blow.

What has been the effect of coercion? To make one half the world fools, and the other half hypocrites. To support roguery and error all over the earth.... [Instead] reason and persuasion are the only practicable instruments. To make way for these, free enquiry must be indulged; and how can we wish others to indulge it while we refuse it ourselves?

Everything hangs on one's thinking.

Reality is irrelevant; Perception is everything.

What is simple is wrong, and what is complicated cannot be understood.

You correct an error by bringing truth to it.

The unexamined life, said Socrates, is unfit to be lived by man. This is the virtue of liberty, and the ground on which we may justify our belief in it, that it tolerates error in order to serve truth.

Truth is in all things, even partly, in error.

It is only that my illusion is more real to me than reality. And so do we often build our world on an error, and cry out that the universe is falling to pieces, if any one but lift a finger to replace the error by truth.

It is easier to perceive error than to find truth, for the former lies on the surface and is easily seen, while the latter lies in the depth, where few are willing to search for it.