Blaise Pascal’s work had a lasting impact on mathematics, science, and philosophy. He is remembered as one of the great minds of the 17th century and is honored through various mathematical and scientific concepts that bear his name.
Best Blaise Pascal Quotes
Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) was a French mathematician, physicist, and philosopher. He is considered to be one of the most important thinkers in the history of science and mathematics.
Blaise Pascal made significant contributions to the study of probability theory and fluid mechanics. In addition to his mathematical work, Pascal was also a pioneer in the field of hydrodynamics and made important discoveries about atmospheric pressure.
He invented the syringe and the hydraulic press, and his work on the development of mechanical calculators laid the foundation for the modern computer.
Blaise Pascal also wrote on religion and ethics, famously declaring in his Pensées that “the heart has its reasons of which reason knows nothing”. His legacy as one of the greatest scientists and thinkers of all time lives on in modern mathematics and philosophy.
Well Known Quotes Blaise Pascal
All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.
If I believe in God and life after death and you do not, and if there is no God, we both lose when we die. However, if there is a God, you still lose and I gain everything.
Kind words do not cost much. Yet they accomplish much.
Once your soul has been enlarged by a truth, it can never return to its original size.
I lay it down as a fact that if all men knew what others say of them, there would not be four friends in the world.
Truth is so obscure in these times, and falsehood so established, that, unless we love the truth, we cannot know it.
Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.
There is a God-shaped hole in the life of every man.
In difficult times carry something beautiful in your heart.
Nothing is so intolerable to man as being fully at rest, without a passion, without business, without entertainment, without care.
Quotes From Blaise Pascal
I have only made this letter longer because I have not had the time to make it shorter
Curiosity is only vanity. We usually only want to know something so that we can talk about it.
I would prefer an intelligent hell to a stupid paradise.
Do you wish people to think well of you? Don’t speak well of yourself.
In faith there is enough light for those who want to believe and enough shadows to blind those who don’t.
Kind words do not cost much. Yet they accomplish much.
Reason’s last step is the recognition that there are an infinite number of things which are beyond it.
The eternal silence of these infinite spaces frightens me.
The heart has its reasons which reason knows not.
The more I see of Mankind, the more I prefer my dog.
To understand is to forgive.
It’s not those who write the laws that have the greatest impact on society. It’s those who write the songs.
Habit is a second nature that destroys the first.
Clarity of mind means clarity of passion, too; this is why a great and clear mind loves ardently and sees distinctly what it loves.
Men are so necessarily mad, that not to be mad would amount to another form of madness.
Nature is an infinite sphere whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere.
Faith embraces many truths which seem to contradict each other.
Justice without force is powerless; force without justice is tyrannical.
Little things comfort us because little things distress us.
Since we cannot know all there is to be known about anything, we ought to know a little about everything.
You always admire what you really don’t understand.
Famous Quotes By Blaise Pascal
If we examine our thoughts, we shall find them always occupied with the past and the future.
It is incomprehensible that God should exist, and it is incomprehensible that he should not exist.
God would be unjust if we were not guilty.
Cleopatra’s nose, had it been shorter, the whole face of the world would have been changed.
If you gain, you gain all. If you lose, you lose nothing. Wager then, without hesitation, that He exists.
Few men speak humbly of humility, chastely of chastity, skeptically of skepticism.
Man is equally incapable of seeing the nothingness from which he emerges and the infinity in which he is engulfed.
It is man’s natural sickness to believe that he possesses the truth.
Words differently arranged have a different meaning, and meanings differently arranged have different effects.
The greater intellect one has, the more originality one finds in men. Ordinary persons find no difference between men.
People almost invariably arrive at their beliefs not on the basis of proof but on the basis of what they find attractive.
Blaise Pascal Did You Know:
- Pascal’s Triangle: He made important contributions to combinatorial mathematics, particularly in the study of Pascal’s Triangle, a triangular array of numbers in which each number is the sum of the two numbers immediately above it. This triangle has applications in probability theory, algebra, and calculus.
- Pascal’s Law: In the field of fluid mechanics, he formulated Pascal’s Law, which describes how pressure applied to a fluid in a closed container is transmitted undiminished throughout the fluid. This principle is fundamental in hydraulic engineering and has various applications.
- Pascal’s Wager: In philosophy and theology, Blaise Pascal is known for his famous philosophical argument known as “Pascal’s Wager.” This argument suggests that it is rational for people to believe in God, even if there is no concrete proof of God’s existence, because the potential benefits of believing in God (eternal salvation) outweigh the risks (the possibility of being wrong).
- Invention of the Pascaline: Pascal also designed and built a mechanical calculating machine called the Pascaline, which is considered one of the earliest mechanical calculators. It could perform addition and subtraction and was a precursor to modern calculators.
- Contributions to Probability Theory: Pascal made important contributions to the field of probability theory, working closely with Pierre de Fermat. Together, they laid the foundation for the theory of probability by solving various problems related to gambling and games of chance.