Our acquirements are confined within limits which we cannot pass, alike incapable of attaining universal knowledge or of remaining in total ignorance.

Such is Our Real State

We may know that an infinity exists, and, at the same time, its nature may be incomprehensible. Thus, for example, we know it to be false that numbers are finite, and therefore infer that they are infinite. But that infinity itself we do not comprehend. It cannot be even, it cannot be odd; for is we add unity, its nature will not be changed; yet it is a number and every number is either even or odd, every finite number at least. We may, the, know assuredly, that there is a God, though we know not what he is.

Finite and Infinite

We are not content with the life we have in ourselves and in our individual being. We wish to live an imaginary life in the thoughts of others, and for this purpose, strive to make a figure in the world.

Imaginary Life

Therefore, to know the one, we must know the other. Thus, all things being naturally effects and causes, ends and instruments, directly or indirectly, and held together by a natural though imperceptible tie, which unites objects the most dissimilar and most distant, Pascal consider it to be as impossible to know the parts without knowing the whole, as to know the whole without knowing the parts in detail.

Flame Cannot Exist without Air

The least that may justly be required of those who are inclined to hostility against Religion is, that they should first take care to understand what its pretentions really are.

Pretension

The highest attainment of reason is to know that there are an infinite number of things beyond its reach.

Reason

The errors of many persons are more dangerous from being founded on some truth.

Error

Our self-will is never satisfied, even when it has obtained all it desires; but we are satisfied the instant we renounce it.

Satisfication

The law does not destroy nature, but corrects and informs it; grace does not destroy the law, but gives the power to obey it.

The Law

In all human things, there is a mixture of truth and falsehood.

Truth and False

If we submit everything to reason, our religion will have nothing mysterious or supernatural.

If We Submit Everything to Reason

Force is the queen of the world, and not opinion; but opinion is that which makes us of force.

Force

Curiosity is nothing but vanity. Men in general wish for knowledge merely that they may talk about it. They would never take a voyage, if they were only to enjoy their adventures, without the prospect of conversing with some one respecting them.

Curiosity

A very loud sounds deafens us. A very intense light blinds us. A very great or a very short distance disables our vision. Excessive length or excessive brevity obscures discourse. Too much pleasure eloys us. Unvaried harmony offends us.

Our Senses Perceive Nothing in the Extreme