Blaise Pascal Quotes

Pascal Quotes

Self Love
The nature of self-love and of this human ego is to love self alone and consider only self. But what can a man do? He cannot prevent the object which he loves form being full of faults and misfortunes. He would like to be great, and sees that he is small. He would like to be happy and sees that he is miserable. He would like to be perfect, and sees himself full of imperfections. He would like to be the object of men's love and esteem, and sees that his faults deserve only their hatred and contempt. The dilemma in which he finds himself kindles in him...a mortal hatred for that truth which rebukes him and convicts him of his faults. He would like to annihilate it; and being unable to destroy it in its essence, he destroys it in so far as he can in his own mind and those of others. I mean that he makes every endeavour to conceal his faults both from others and from himself, and cannot endure having them pointed out to him or even seen.

We ought not be annoyed that they should know our faults and despise us, it being only right that they should recognize us for what we are, and despise us if we are despicable. These are the feelings that would arise in a heart full of equity and justice. What should we say of ours then, when we find it of the opposite disposition? For isn’t it true that we hate the truth and those who point it out to us? We like them to be deceived and want them to value us as other than we are.

In short, self has two qualities; it is intrinsically wicked, in that it makes itself the centre of everything; and it is a nuisance to others, in that it desires to enslave them; for every self is the enemy of all the rest and would like to tyrannize over them.

We never care for the present moment. We anticipate the future as too slow in coming... or we recall the past, to stay its too rapid flight. We are so foolish that we wander in times that are not ours and never think of the only time that belongs to us. We are so frivolous that we dream of the days that are not, and thoughtlessly pass over the only one that exists. ...So we never live, but hope to live; and since we are always preparing to be happy it is inevitable that we shall never be so.

Our imagination so expands the present time for us by reflecting continually upon it, and so contracts eternity by never reflecting upon it, that we make a nothing of eternity and an eternity of nothing; and this habit is so deeply rooted in us that all our reason cannot save us from it...


They believe that only God deserves love and admiration, but have themselves desired the love and admiration of men, and do not recognize their own corruption. If they are filled with the desire to love and adore Him, and find their chief joy in this, let them think well of themselves; they have a right to. But if they find this repugnant and their only inclination is to strive for men's esteem; if moreover their idea of perfection is to make men - without forcing them - take pleasure in loving them, I say their ideal is horrible. What, have they known God, and yet wished men not to love Him alone, but to stop short at them? They have desired to be the object of men's willful delight!

"The God of the Christians is a God of love and consolation," Pascal wrote in his Pensees. "He is a God who fills the soul and heart of those whom he possesses: he is a God who makes them inwardly aware of their wretchedness and his infinite mercy: who united himself with them in the depths of their soul...who makes them incapable of having any other end but him."(1)

"All that Jesus Christ did was to teach men that they loved themselves, that they were slaves, blind, sick, unhappy, and sinful; that they needed Him to deliver, enlighten, bless, and heal them; that this could be done if they were to hate themselves, and follow Him in His suffering and death on the cross."

"It is pleasant to be in a storm-tossed ship when one is sure that one will not drown. The persecutions that affect the church are of this nature.”

''A mere trifle consoles us for a mere trifle distresses us.''

''The sensitivity of men to small matters, and their indifference to great ones, indicates a strange inversion.''

"We do not content ourselves with the life we have in ourselves and in our being; we desire to live an imaginary life in the mind of others, and for this purpose we endeavor to shine. We labor unceasingly to adorn and preserve this imaginary existence and neglect the real.''

''We do not weary of eating and sleeping every day, for hunger and sleepiness recur. Without that we should weary of them. So, without the hunger for spiritual things, we weary of them. Hunger after righteousness—the eighth beatitude.''

''If our condition were truly happy, we would not need diversion from thinking of it in order to make ourselves happy.''

''Truly it is an evil to be full of faults; but it is a still greater evil to be full of them and to be unwilling to recognize them, since that is to add the further fault of a voluntary illusion.''

''People are generally better persuaded by the reasons which they have themselves discovered than by those which have come into the mind of others.''

''Can anything be more ridiculous than that a man should have the right to kill me because he lives on the other side of the water, and because his ruler has a quarrel with mine, though I have none with him?''

"They believe that only God deserves love and admiration, but have themselves desired the love and admiration of men, and do not recognize their own corruption. If they are filled with the desire to love and adore God, and find their chief joy in this, let them think well of themselves; they have a right to. But, if they find this repugnant, and their only inclination is to strive for men's esteem; if moreover their idea of perfection is to make men - (without forcing them) - take pleasure in loving them, I say their ideal is horrible. What, have they known God, and yet wished men not to love Him alone, but to stop short at them? They have desired to be the object of men's wilful delight!"


About Jesus Christ:
"What man ever had greater renown? The whole Jewish people foretell that He will come. The Gentiles worship Him after His coming. ...And yet what man ever enjoyed this renown less? For thirty of His thirty-three years He lived in obscurity. For three years He was taken as an impostor; the priests and the chief people rejected Him; His friends and His relatives despised Him. In the end, He died, betrayed by one of His followers, denied by another, and forsaken by all. What benefit had He from His renown? No man ever had so much; yet no man ever suffered greater ignominy. All that renown has served us alone, to make us recognize Him; and He had none of it for Himself."


About himself:
"I love poverty because He loved it. I love wealth because it gives us the means to assist the poor. I keep faith with everybody. I do not return evil to those who have hurt me; but I wish them to be in a state like mine... I try to be just, truthful, sincere, and faithful to all men; and I have a tender heart for those to whom God has most closely united me; whether I am alone, or in the presence of others, I perform all my actions in the sight of God, who must judge them, and to whom I have consecrated them all. These are my feelings, and every day of my life I bless my Redeemer who has implanted them in me, and who out of a man full of weaknesses, miseries, appetites, pride, and ambition, has made one free from all these evils by the strength of His grace, to which all glory for this is due, since in myself there is only misery and error."

The Memorial:

FIRE.

GOD of Abraham, GOD of Isaac, GOD of Jacob

not of the philosophers and of the learned.

Certitude. Certitude. Feeling. Joy. Peace.

GOD of Jesus Christ.

My God and your God.

Your GOD will be my God. 

Forgetfulness of the world and of everything, except GOD.

He is only found by the ways taught in the Gospel.

Grandeur of the human soul.

Righteous Father, the world has not known you, but I have known you.

Joy, joy, joy, tears of joy.

I have departed from him:

They have forsaken me, the fount of living water.

My God, will you leave me?

Let me not be separated from him forever.

This is eternal life, that they know you, the one true God, and the one that you sent, Jesus Christ. 

Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ.

I left him; I fled him, renounced, crucified.

Let me never be separated from him.

He is only kept securely by the ways taught in the Gospel:

Renunciation, total and sweet.

Complete submission to Jesus Christ and to my director. 

Eternally in joy for a day's exercise on the earth.

May I not forget your words. Amen.

Matthew Henry Quotes

"Men need not be drawn from their religion by the temptation of mirth, for we serve a Master that has abundantly provided for the joy of his servants: serious godliness is a continual feast, and joy in God always."

‘The pleasures of sense are puddle-water; spiritual delights are rock water, so pure, so clear, so refreshing — rivers of pleasure." (on Exodus 17:1-7)

“Ask, seek, knock, that is in one word: pray, pray, and pray again. Ask as a beggar asks for alms. Those who would be rich in grace must apply themselves to the poor trade of begging, and they shall find it a thriving trade. ...

Present your needs and burdens to God. Ask as a traveler asks the way; to pray is to plead with God. Seek as for a thing of value that we have lost. Seek in prayer. Knock, as he who desires to enter the house knocks at the door. Sin has shut and barred the door against us; by prayer we knock; "Lord, Lord, open the door to us!" Christ knocks at our door and allows us to knock at his which is a favor we do not allow common beggars. Seeking and knocking imply something more than asking and praying... We must not only ask, but knock; we must come to God's door, must ask importunately, not only pray, but plead and wrestle with God.”

"Let a righteous man strike me - it is a kindness; let him rebuke me—it is oil for my head; let my head not refuse it.” David desires to be told of his faults. We are here taught how to receive the reproofs of the righteous and wise. If my own heart does not strike me, as it ought, let my friend do it; let me never fall under that dreadful judgment of being let alone in sin. We must account it a duty of friendship. We must not only bear it patiently, but take it as a kindness. Though reproofs cut, it is to affect a cure, and therefore they are much more desirable than the kisses of an enemy or the song of fools.”

"Were we to think more of our own mistakes and offenses, we should be less apt to judge other people. While we are severe against what we count offensive in others, we do not consider how much there is in us which is justly offensive to them. Self-justifiers are commonly self-deceivers. We are all guilty before God; and those who vaunt it over the frailties and infirmities of others little think how many things they offend in themselves. Nay, perhaps their magisterial deportment, and censorious tongues, may prove worse than any faults they condemn in others. (on James 3:1-2)

Observe,I. How the people fretted themselves: They lifted up their voices and cried (v. 1); giving credit to the report of the spies rather than to the word of God, and imagining their condition desperate, they laid the reins on the neck of their passions, and could keep no manner of temper. Like foolish froward children, they fall a crying, yet know not what they cry for. It would have been time enough to cry out when the enemy had beaten up their quarters, and they had seen the sons of Anak at the gate of their camp; but those that cried when nothing hurt them deserved to have something given them to cry for. And, as if all had been already gone, they sat down and wept that night. Note, Unbelief, or distrust of God, is a sin that is its own punishment. Those that do not trust God are continually vexing themselves. The world’s mourners are more than God’s, and the sorrow of the world worketh death. (on Numbers 14)

Suppose the difficulties of conquering Canaan were as great as they imagined, those of returning to Egypt were much greater. In this let us see, (1.) The folly of discontent and impatience under the crosses of our outward condition. We are uneasy at that which is, complain of our place and lot, and we would shift; but is there any place or condition in this world that has not something in it to make us uneasy if we are disposed to be so? The way to better our condition is to get our spirits into a better frame; and instead of asking, "Were it not better to go to Egypt?’’ ask, "Were it not better to be content, and make the best of that which is?’’ (on Numbers 14)

What will those be pleased with whom manna will not please? (on Numbers 21)

Note, We are more endangered by the charms of a smiling world than by the terrors of a frowning world.  (Numbers 25:1-2)

The rule is general, If a man vow, he must pay. But for a daughter it is express: her vow is nugatory or in suspense till her father knows it, and (it is supposed) knows it from her; for, when it comes to his knowledge, it is in his power either to ratify or nullify it. But in favour of the vow, 1. Even his silence shall suffice to ratify it: If hehold his peace, her vows shall stand, v. 4. Qui tacet, consentire videtur—Silence gives consent.Hereby he allows his daughter the liberty she has assumed, and, as long as he says nothing against her vow, she shall be bound by it.  (On Numbers 30)

I shall do to you as I thought to do unto them, v. 56. It was intended that the Canaanites should be dispossessed; but if the Israelites fell in with them, and learned their way, they should be dispossessed, for God’s displeasure would justly be greater against them than against the Canaanites themselves. Let us hear this, and fear. If we do not drive sin out, sin will drive us out; if we be not the death of our lusts, our lusts will be the death of our souls. (Numbers 33)

God sets bounds to our lot; let us then set bounds to our desires, and bring our mind to our condition. (Numbers 34)


Note, Those know Christ best that know him by experience, that can say of his power, It works in me; of his love, He loved me. And this proves Christ not only to have a divine mission, but to be a divine person, that he is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart, therefore the essential, eternal Word,  (on John 16:26-30)

If Christ had indeed sought to save his life, now had been his time to have spoken; but that which he had to do was to lay down his life.(5.) Christ’s pertinent answer to this check, v. 11, where,[1.] He boldly rebukes his arrogance, and rectifies his mistake: "Big as thou lookest and talkest, thou couldest have no power at all against me, no power to scourge, no power to crucify, except it were given thee from above.’’ Though Christ did not think fit to answer him when he was impertinent (then answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like him ), yet he did think fit to answer him when he was imperious; then answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit, Prov. 26:4, Prov. 26:5 .  (on John 19:11)

Observe what it is that he begs of God for them,I. That they might be knowing intelligent Christians: filled with the knowledge of his will, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. Observe, 1. The knowledge of our duty is the best knowledge. A mere empty notion of the greatest truths is insignificant. Our knowledge of the will of God must be always practical: we must know it, in order to do it. 2. Our knowledge is then a blessing indeed when it is in wisdom, when we know how to apply our general knowledge to our particular occasions, and to suit it to all emergencies. 3. Christians should endeavour to be filled with knowledge; not only to know the will of God, but to know more of it, and to increase in the knowledge of God (as it is v. 10), and to grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior,  (on Col 1:9)

The sin that rightly troubles us, shall not ruin us. And there may be good hopes through grace, even where there is the sense of great guilt before God. The case is plain; what has been done amiss, must be undone again as far as possible; nothing less than this is true repentance. Sin must be put away, with a resolution never to have any thing more to do with it. What has been unjustly got, must be restored. Arise, be of good courage. Weeping, in this case, is good, but reforming is better. (on Ezra 10)