Blaise Pascal Quotes

       Blaise Pascal
       1623-1662
      
       Among the contemporaries of Descartes none displayed greater natural genius than Pascal, but his mathematical reputation rests more on what he might have done than on what he actually effected, as during a considerable part of his life he deemed it his duty to devote his whole time to religious exercises.
      
       At 16, Pascal began designing a calculating machine, which he finally perfected when he was thirty, the pascaline, a beautiful handcrafted box about fourteen by five by three inches. The first accurate mechanical calculator was born.
      
       Pascal was dismayed and disgusted by society's reactions to his machine and completely renounced his interest in science an mathematics, devoting the rest of his life to God. He is best known for his collection of spiritual essays, Les Pensees.
      
       Ironically, Pascal, who was a genius by any measure, with one of the finest brains of all time, died of a brain hemorrhage at the age of 39.

As men are not able to fight against death, misery, ignorance, they have taken it into their heads, in order to be happy, not to think of them at all.     Topics: Apathy Nothing is as approved as mediocrity, the majority has established it and it fixes it fangs on whatever gets beyond it either way.     Topics: Apathy Nothing is so intolerable to man as being fully at rest, without a passion, without business, without entertainment, without care.     Topics: Apathy, Business, Rest The consciousness of the falsity of present pleasures, and the ignorance of the vanity of absent pleasures, cause inconstancy.     Topics: Apathy The immortality of the soul is a matter which is of so great consequence to us and which touches us so profoundly that we must have lost all feeling to be indifferent about it.     Topics: Apathy The sensitivity of men to small matters, and their indifference to great ones, indicates a strange inversion.     Topics: Apathy, Men We like security: we like the pope to be infallible in matters of faith, and grave doctors to be so in moral questions so that we can feel reassured.     Topics: Apathy We run carelessly to the precipice, after we have put something before us to prevent us seeing it.     Topics: Apathy The majority is the best way, because it is visible, and has strength to make itself obeyed. Yet it is the opinion of the least able.     Topics: Apathy We are so little and vain that the esteem of five or six persons about us is enough to content and amuse us.     Topics: Apathy Atheism shows strength of mind, but only to a certain degree.     Topics: Atheism Imagination disposes of everything; it creates beauty, justice, and happiness, which are everything in this world.     Topics: Beauty, Reasoning