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Blaise Pascal Quotes about Knowledge

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We know that there is an infinite, and we know not its nature. As we know it to be false that numbers are finite, it is therefore true that there is a numerical infinity. But we know not of what kind; it is untrue that

We know that there is an infinite, and we know not its nature. As we know it to be false that numbers are finite, it is therefore true that there is a numerical infinity. But we know not of what kind; it is untrue that it is even, untrue that it is odd; for the addition of a unit does not change its nature; yet it is a number, and every number is odd or even (this certainly holds of every finite number). Thus we may quite well know that there is a God without knowing what He is.

Blaise Pascal
Change, God, Knowledge

Since we cannot know all that there is to be known about anything, we ought to know a little about everything.

Blaise Pascal
Knowledge, Science, Littles

Let us, then, take our compass; we are something, and we are not everything. The nature of our existence hides from us the knowledge of first beginnings which are born of the nothing; and the littleness of our being conceals from us the sight of the infinite. Our intellect holds the same position in the world of thought as our body occupies in the expanse of nature.

Blaise Pascal
Knowledge, Sight, World
Blaise Pascal (2009). “Thoughts”, p.31, Lulu.com

Since we cannot be universal and know all that is to be known of everything, we ought to know a little about everything. For it is far better to know something about everything than to know all about one thing. This universality is the best. If we can have both, still better; but if we must choose, we ought to choose the former.

Blaise Pascal
Knowledge, Knows, One Thing
"Thoughts, Letters & Minor Works".

Extremes are for us as though they were not, and we are not within their notice. They escape us, or we them. This is our true state; this is what makes us incapable of certain knowledge and of absolute ignorance... This is our natural condition, and yet most contrary to our inclination; we burn with desire to find solid ground and an ultimate sure foundation whereon to build a tower reaching to the Infinite. But our whole groundwork cracks, and the earth opens to abysses.

Blaise Pascal
Ignorance, Knowledge, Desire
"Pensées" by Blaise Pascal, (Ch. 72), 1669.

Knowledge has two extremes. The first is the pure natural ignorance in which all men find themselves at birth. The other extreme is that reached by great minds, who, having run through all that men can know, find they know nothing, and come back again to that same natural ignorance from which they set out; this is a learned ignorance which is conscious of itself.

Blaise Pascal
Running, Ignorance, Knowledge

Vanity of science. Knowledge of physical science will not console me for ignorance of morality in time of affliction, but knowledge of morality will always console me for ignorance of physical science.

Blaise Pascal
Time, Ignorance, Knowledge
c.1654-1662 Pense es, no.23.

We sail within a vast sphere, ever drifting in uncertainty, driven from end to end. When we think to attach ourselves to any pointand to fasten to it, it wavers and leaves us; and if we follow it, it eludes our grasp, slips past us, and vanishes for ever. Nothing stays for us.

Blaise Pascal
Knowledge, Past, Thinking
Blaise Pascal, W. F. Trotter, T. S. Eliot (2003). “Pensees”, p.19, Courier Corporation

The knowledge of God is very far from the love of Him.

Blaise Pascal
Valentines Day, God, Knowledge
Blaise Pascal (2015). “Pensees: Thoughts on Religion”, p.94, Letcetera Publishing

Since [man] is infinitely removed from comprehending the extremes, the end of things and their beginning are hopelessly hidden from him in an impenetrable secret; he is equally incapable of seeing the nothing from which he was made, and the infinite in which he is swallowed up.

Blaise Pascal
Knowledge, Men, Secret
Blaise Pascal (2013). “Pascal's Pensees”, p.21, Simon and Schuster

The great mass of people judge well of things, for they are in natural ignorance, which is man's true state.

Blaise Pascal
Ignorance, Knowledge, Men

What matters it that man should have a little more knowledge of the universe? If he has it, he gets little higher. Is he not always infinitely removed from the end, and is not the duration of our life equally removed from eternity, even if it lasts ten years longer?

Blaise Pascal
Knowledge, Men, What Matters
Blaise Pascal (2010). “Thoughts, Letters & Minor Works”, p.30, Cosimo, Inc.

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