Pascal's Penses

Abraham,
took nothing for himself, 502;
from stones can come children unto, 777;
and Gideon, 821

Absolutions, without signs of regret, 903, 904

Act, the last, is tragic, 210

Adam,
compared with Christ, 551;
his glorious state, 559;
forma futuri, 655

Advent, the time of the first, foretold, 756

Age,
influences judgment, 381;
the six ages, 654

Alexander, the example of his chastity, 103

Amusements, dangerous to the Christian life, 11

Animals, intelligence and instinct of, 340, 342

Antichrist,
miracles of, foretold by Christ, 825;
will speak openly against God, 842;
miracles of, cannot lead into error, 845

Apocalyptics, extravagances of the, 650

Apostles,
hypothesis that they were deceivers, 571;
foresaw heresies, 578;
supposition that they were either deceived or deceivers, 801

Aquinas, Thomas, 61, 338

Arcesilaus, the sceptic, became a dogmatist, 375

Archimedes, greatness of, 792

Arians, where they go wrong, 861

Aristotle, and Plato, 331

Arius, miracles in his time, 831

Athanasius, St., 867

Atheism, shows a certain strength of mind, 225

Atheists,
who seek, to be pitied, 190;
ought to say what is perfectly evident, 221;
objections of, against the Resurrection and the Virgin Birth, 222, 223;
objection of, 228

Augustine, St.,
saw that we work for an uncertainty, 234;
on the submission of reason, 270;
on miracles, 811;
his authority, 868

Augustus, his saying about Herod's son, 179

Authority, in belief, 260

Authors, vanity of certain, 43

Automatism, human, 252


Babylon, rivers of, 459

Beauty,
a certain standard of, 32;
poetical, 33

Belief,
three sources of, 245;
rule of, 260;
of simple people, 284;
without reading the Testaments, 286;
the Cross creates, 587;
reasons why there is no, in the miracles, 825

Bias, leads to error, 98

Birth,
noble, an advantage, 322;
persons of high, honoured and despised, 337

Blame, and praise, 501

Blood, example of the circulation of, 96

Body,
nourishment of the, 356;
the, and its members, 475, 476;
infinite distance between mind and, 792

Brutes, no mutual admiration among the, 401


Cæsar, compared with Alexander and Augustus, 132

Calling, chance decides the choice of a, 97

Calvinism, error of, 776

Canonical, the heretical books prove the, 568

Carthusian monk, difference between a soldier and a, 538

Casuists,
true believers have no pretext for following their laxity, 888;
submit the decision to a corrupted reason, 906;
cannot give assurance to a conscience in error, 908;
allow lust to act, 913

Causes, seen by the intellect and not by the senses, 234

[Pg 292]Catholic, the, doctrine, of the Holy Sacrament, 861

Ceremonies, ordained in the Old Testament, are types, 679

Certain, nothing is, 234

Chance,
according to the doctrine of chance, one should believe in God, 233;
and work for an uncertainty, 234;
and seek the truth, 236;
gives rise to thoughts, 370

Chancellor, the position of the, uneral, 307

Character, the Christian, the human, and the inhuman, 532

Charity,
nothing so like it as covetousness, 662;
not a figurative precept, 664;
the sole aim of the Scripture, 669

Charron, the divisions of, 62

Children,
frightened at the face they have blackened, 88;
of Port-Royal, 151;
illustration of usurpation from, 295

China, History of, 592, 593

Christianity,
alone cures pride and sloth, 435;
is strange, 536;
consists in two points, 555;
evidence for, 563;
is wise and foolish, 587

Christians,
few true, 256;
without the knowledge of the prophecies and evidences, 287;
comply with folly, 338;
humility of, 537;
their hope, 539;
their happiness, 540;
the God of, 543

Church,
history of the, 857;
the, in persecution, like a ship in a storm, 858;
when in a good state, 860;
has always been attacked by opposite errors, 861;
the, and tradition, 866;
absolution and the, 869;
the Pope and the, 870;
the, and infallibility, 875;
true justice in the, 877;
the work of the, 880;
the discipline of the, 884;
the anathemas of the, 895

Cicero, false beauties in, 31

Cipher,
a, has a double meaning, 676, 677;
key of, 680;
the, given by St. Paul, 682

Circumcision,
only a sign, 609;
the apostles and, 671

Clearness,
sufficient, for the elect, 577;
and obscurity, 856

Cleobuline, the passion of, 13

Cleopatra,
the nose of, 162;
and love, 163

Compliments, 57

Conditions, the easiest, to live in, according to the world and to God, 905

Condolences, formal, 56

Confession, 100;
different effects of, 529

Contradiction, 157;
a bad sign of truth, 384

Conversion, the, 470;
of the heathen, 768

Copernicus, 218

Cords, the, which bind the respect of men to each other, 304

Correct, how to, with advantage, 9

Cripple, why a, does not offend us, and a fool does, 80

Cromwell, death of, 176

Custom,
is our nature, 89;
our natural principles, principles of, 92;
a second nature, 93;
the source of our strongest beliefs, 252

Cyrus, prediction of, 712


Damned, the, condemned by their own reason, 562

Daniel, 721;
the seventy weeks of, 722

David,
a saying of, 689;
the eternal reign of the race of, 716, 717

Death,
easier to bear without thinking of it, 166;
men do not think of, 168;
fear of, 215, 216;
examples of the noble deaths of the Lacedæmonians, 481

Deference, meaning of, 317

Deeds, noble, best when hidden, 159

Deism, as far removed from Christianity as atheism, 555

Democritus, saying of, 72

Demonstrations, not certain that there are true, 387

Descartes, 76, 77, 78, 79

Devil,
the, and miracle, 803;
the, and doctrine, 819

Disciples, and true disciples, 518

Discourses, on humility, 377

Diseases, a source of error, 82

Disproportion of man, 72

Diversion, reason why men seek, 139, 140, 141, 142, 143, 168, 170

Docility, 254

Doctor, the, 12

Doctrine, and miracles, 802, 842

Dogmatism, and scepticism, 434

Dream, life like a, 386

Duty, and the passions, 104


Ecclesiastes, 389

[Pg 293]Eclipses, why said to foretoken misfortune, 173

Ego,
what is the, 323;
consists in thought, 469

Egyptians, conversion of the, 724

Elect,
the, ignorant of their virtues, 514;
all things work together for good to the, 574

Eloquence, 15, 16, 25, 26

Emilius, Paulus, 409, 410

Enemies, meaning of, in the prophecies, 570, 691

Epictetus, 80, 466, 467

Error, a common, when advantageous, 18

Esdras, the story in, 631, 632, 633

Eternity, existence of, 195

Ethics,
consoles us, 67;
a special science, 911

Eucharist, the, 224, 512, 788

Evangelists, the, painted a perfectly heroic soul in Jesus Christ, 799

Evil, infinite forms of, 408

Examples, in demonstration, 40

Exception, and the rule, 832, 903

Excuses, on, 58

External, the, must be joined to the internal, 250

Ezekiel, spoke evil of Israel, 885


Faith,
different from proof, 248;
and miracle, 263;
and the senses, 264;
what is, 278;
without, man cannot know the true good or justice, 425;
consists in Jesus Christ, 522

Fancy,
effects of, 86;
confused with feeling, 274

Faults, we owe a great debt to those who point out, 534

Fear, good and bad, 262

Feeling,
and reasoning, 3, 274;
harmed in the same way as the understanding, 6

Flies, the power of, 366, 367

Friend, importance of a true, 155

Fundamentals, the two, 804


Galilee, the word, 743

Gentiles,
conversion of the, 712;
calling of the, 713

Gentleman,
the universal quality, 35;
man never taught to be a, 68

Glory, 151, 401;
the greatest baseness of man is the pursuit of, 404

God,
the conduct of, 185;
is infinite, 231, 233;
infinitely incomprehensible, 233;
we should wager that there is a, 233;
a Deus absconditus, 194, 242;
knowledge of, is not the love of Him, 280;
two kinds of persons know, 288;
has created all for Himself, 314;
the wisdom of, 430;
must reign over all, 460;
we must love Him only, 479;
not true that all reveals, 556;
has willed to blind some and to enlighten others, 565, 575;
foresaw heresies, 578;
has willed to hide Himself, 584;
formed for Himself the Jewish people, 643;
the word does not differ from the intention in, 653;
the greatness of His compassion, 847;
has not wanted to absolve without the Church, 869

Godliness, why difficult, 498

Good, the inquiry into the sovereign, 73, 462

Gospel, the style of the, admirable, 797

Grace,
unites us to God, 430, 507;
necessary to turn a man into a saint, 508;
the law and, 519, 521;
nature and, 520;
morality and, 522;
man's capacity for, 523

Great, the, and the humble have the same misfortunes, 180

Greatness,
the, of man, 397, 398, 400, 409;
constituted by thought, 346;
even in his lust, 402, 403;
and wretchedness of man, 416, 417, 418, 423, 430, 443


Haggai, 725

Happiness,
all men seek, 425;
is in God, 465

Happy, in order to be, man does not think of death, 169

Hate, all men naturally, one another, 451

Heart,
the, has its reasons, 277;
experiences God, 278;
we know truth, not only by the reason, but also by the, 282;
has its own order, 283

Heresy, 774;
source of all, 861

Heretics,
and the three marks of religion, 843, 844;
and the Jesuits, 890

Herod, 178, 179

Hosts, the three, 177


Image, an, of the condition of men, 199

Imagination,
that deceitful part in man, 82;
enlarges little objects, 84;
magnifies a nothing, 85;
often mistaken for the heart, 275;
[Pg 294]judges, etc., appeal only to the, 307

Inconstancy, in, 112, 113

Infinite,
the, of greatness and of littleness, 72;
and the finite, 233

Injustice, 214, 191, 293, 326, 878

Instability, 212

Intellect, different kinds of, 2

Isaiah, 712, 725


Jacob, 612, 710

Jansenists,
the, are persecuted, 859;
are like the heretics, 886

Jeremiah, 713, 818

Jesuits,
the, unjust persecutors, 851;
hardness of the, 853;
and Jansenists, 864;
impose upon the Pope, 881;
effects of their sins, 918;
do not keep their word, 923

Jesus Christ
employs the rule of love, 283;
is a God whom we approach without pride, 527;
His teaching, 544;
without, man must be in misery, 545;
God known only through, 546;
we know ourselves only through, 547;
useless to know God without, 548;
the sepulchre of, 551;
the mystery of, 552;
and His wounds, 553;
genealogy of, 577;
came at the time foretold, 669;
necessary for Him to suffer, 678;
the Messiah, 719;
prophecies about, 730, 733, 734;
foretold, and was foretold, 738;
how regarded by the Old and New Testaments, 239;
what the prophets say of, 750;
His office, 765;
typified by Joseph, 767;
what He came to say, 769, 782;
came to blind, etc., 770;
never condemned without hearing, 779;
Redeemer of all, 780;
would not have the testimony of devils, 783;
an obscurity, 785, 788;
would not be slain without the forms of justice, 789;
no man had more renown than, 791;
absurd to take offence at the lowliness of, 792;
came in sanctificationem et in scandalum, 794;
said great things simply, 796;
verified that He was the Messiah, 807;
and miracles, 828

Jews,
their religion must be differently regarded in the Bible and in their tradition, 600;
and is wholly divine, 602;
the carnal, 606, 607, 661, 746;
true, and true Christians have the same religion, 609;
their advantages, 619;
their antiquity, 627;
their sincerity, 629, 630;
their long and miserable existence, 639;
the, expressly made to witness to the Messiah, 640;
earthly thoughts of the, 669;
were the slaves of sin, 670;
their zeal for the law, 700, 701;
the devil troubled their zeal, 703;
their captivity, 712;
reprobation of the, 712;
accustomed to great miracles, 745;
the, but not all, reject Christ, 759;
the, in slaying Him, have proved Him to be the Messiah, 760;
their dilemma, 761

Job and Solomon, 174

John, St., the Baptist, 775

Joseph, 622, 697, 767

Josephus, 628, 786

Joshua, 626

Judgment,
the, and the intellect, 4;
of another easily prejudiced, 105

Just, the, act by faith, 504

Justice,
the, of God, 233;
relation of, to law and custom, 294, 325;
and might, 298, 299;
determined by custom, 309;
is what is established, 312


King,
the, surrounded by people to amuse him, 139;
a, without amusement, is full of wretchedness, 142;
why he inspires respect, 308;
and tyrant, 310;
on what his power is founded, 330

Knowledge,
limitations of man's, 72;
of ourselves impossible, apart from the mystery of the transmission of sin, 434;
of God and of man's wretchedness found in Christ, 526

Koran, the, 596


Lackeys, afford a means of social distinction, 318, 319

Language, 27, 45, 49, 53, 54, 59, 648

Law,
the, and nature, 519;
the, and grace, 521;
the, of the Jews, the oldest and most perfect, 618

Laws,
the, are the only universal rules, 299;
two, rule the Christian Republic, 484

[Pg 295]Liancourt, the frog and the pike of, 341

Life,
human, a perpetual illusion, 100;
we desire to live an imaginary, 147;
short duration of, 205;
only, between us and heaven or hell, 213

Love,
nature of self-, 100, 455;
causes and effects of, 162, 163;
nothing so opposed to justice and truth as self-, 492

Lusts, the three, 458, 460, 461


Machine,
the, 246, 247;
the arithmetical, 340

Macrobius, 178, 179

Magistrates, make a show to strike the imagination, 82

Mahomet, 590;
without authority, 594;
his own witness, 595;
a false prophet, 596;
is ridiculous, 597;
difference between Christ and, 598, 599;
religion of, 600

Man,
full of wants, 36;
misery of, without God, 60, 389;
disproportion of, 72;
a subject of error, 83;
naturally credulous, 125;
description of, 116;
condition of, 127;
disgraceful for, to yield to pleasure, 160;
despises religion, 187;
lacks heart, 196;
his sensibility to trifles, 197;
a thinking reed, 347, 348;
neither angel, nor brute, 358;
necessarily mad, 414;
two views of the nature of, 415;
does not know his rank, 427;
a chimera, 434;
the two vices of, 435;
pursues wealth, 436;
only happy in God, 438;
does not act by reason, 439;
unworthy of God, 510;
is of two kinds, 533;
holds an inward talk with himself, 535;
without Christ, must be in vice and misery, 545;
everything teaches him his condition, 556

Martial, epigrams of, 41

Master and servant, 530, 896

Materialism, on, 72, 75

Members, we are, of the whole, 474, 477, 482, 483

Memory,
intuitive, 95;
necessary for reason, 369

Merit, men and, 490

Messiah,
necessary that there should be preceding prophecies about the, 570;
the, according to the carnal Jews and carnal Christians, 606;
the, has always been believed in, 615;
and expected, 616;
prophecies about the, 726, 728, 729;
Herod believed to be the, 752

Mind,
difference between the mathematical and the intuitive, 1;
and body, 72, 792;
natural for it to believe, 81;
the, easily disturbed, 366

Miracles,
and belief, 263;
a test of doctrine, 802, 842, 845;
definition of, 803;
necessary, 805;
Christ and 807, 810, 828, 833, 837, 838;
Montaigne and, 812, 813;
the reason people believe false, 816, 817;
the, of the false prophets, 818;
false, 822, 823;
their use, 824;
the foundation of religion, 825, 826, 850;
no longer necessary, 831;
the miracle of the Holy Thorn, 838, 855;
the test in matters of doubt, 840;
one mark of religion, 843

Misery,
diversion alone consoles us for, and is the greatest, 171;
proves man's greatness, 398;
we have an instinct which raises us above, 411;
induces despair, 525

Miton, 192, 448, 455

Montaigne, 18;
criticism of, 62, 63, 64, 65; 220, 234, 325, 812, 813

Moses, 577, 592, 623, 628, 688, 689, 751, 802


Nature
has made her truths independent of one another, 21;
and theology, 29;
is corrupt, 60;
has set us in the centre, 70;
only a first custom, 93;
makes us unhappy in every state, 109;
imitates herself, 110;
diversifies, 120;
always begins the same things again, 121;
our, consists in motion, 129;
and God, 229, 242, 243, 244;
acts by progress, 355;
the least movement affects all, 505;
perfections and imperfections of, 579;
an image of grace, 674

Nebuchadnezzar, 721

Novelty, power of the charms of, 82


Obscurity,
the, of religion shows its truth, 564;
without, man would not be sensible of corruption, 585

Opinion, the queen of the world, 311

Outward, the Church judges only by the, 904


Painting, vanity of, 134

Passion,
makes us forget duty, 104;
we are sure of pleasing a man, if we know his ruling, 106;
how to prevent the harmful effect of, 203

[Pg 296]Patriarchs, longevity of, 625

Paul, St., 283, 532, 672, 682, 852

Pelagians, the semi-, 776

Penitence, 660, 922

People,
ordinary, have the power of not thinking of that about which they do not want to think, 259;
sound opinions of the people, 313, 316, 324

Perpetuity, 612, 615, 616

Perseus, 410

Persons,
only three kinds of, 257;
two kinds of, know God, 288

Peter, St., 671, 743

Philosophers,
the, have confused ideas of things, 72;
influence of imagination upon, 82;
disquiet inquirers, 184;
made their ethics independent of the immortality of the soul, 219, 220;
have mastered their passions, 349;
believe in God without Christ, 463;
their motto, 464;
have consecrated vices, 503;
what they advise, 509;
did not prescribe suitable feelings, 524

Piety, different from superstition, 255

Pilate, the false justice of, 790

Plato, 219, 331

Poets, 34, 38, 39

Pope, the, 870, 871, 872, 873, 874, 879, 881

Port-Royal, 151, 838, 919

Prayer, why established, 513

Predictions
of particular things, 710;
of Cyrus, 712;
of events in the fourth monarchy, 723;
of the Messiah, 728, 730

Present, we do not rest satisfied with the, 172

Presumption of men, 148

Pride, 152, 153, 406

Probability, the Jesuitical doctrine of, 901, 907, 909, 912, 915, 916, 917, 919, 921

Proofs,
of religion, 289, 290;
metaphysical, of God, 542

Prophecies,
the, entrusted to the Jews, 570;
the strongest proof of Christ, 705;
necessarily distributed, 706;
about Christ, 709, 726, 730, 732, 735;
proofs of divinity, 712;
in Egypt, 725

Prophets,
the, prophesied by symbols, 652;
their discourses obscure, 658;
their meaning veiled, 677;
zeal after the, 702;
did not speak to flatter the people, 718;
foretold, 738

Propositions,
the five, 830, 849
Purgatory, 518

Provincial Letters, the, 52, 919

Pyrrhus, advice given to, 139


Rabbinism, chronology of, 634

Reason
and the imagination, 82;
and the senses, 83;
recognises an infinity of things beyond it, 267;
submission of, 268, 269, 270, 272;
the heart and, 277, 278, 282;
and instinct, 344, 395;
commands us imperiously, 345;
and the passions, 412, 413;
corruption of, 440

Reasoning, reduces itself to yielding to feeling, 274

Redemption,
the Red Sea an image of the, 642;
the completeness of the, 780

Religion,
its true nature and the necessity of studying it, 194;
sinfulness of indifference to it, 195;
whether certain, 234;
suited to all kinds of minds, 285;
true, 470, 494;
test of the falsity of a, 487;
two ways of proving its truths, 560;
the Christian, has something astonishing in it, 614;
the Christian, founded upon a preceding, 618;
reasons for preferring the Christian, 736;
three marks of, 843;
and natural reason, 902

Republic, the Christian, 482, 610

Rivers, moving roads, 17

Roannez, M. de, a saying of, 276

Rule, a, necessary to judge a work, 5


Sabbath, the, only a sign, 609

Sacrifices, of the Jews and Gentiles, 609

Salvation, happiness of those who hope for, 239

Scaramouch, 12

Scepticism, 373, 376, 378, 385, 392, 394;
truth of, 432;
chief arguments of, 434

Sciences, vanity of the, 67

Scripture,
and the number of stars, 266;
its order, 283;
has provided passages for all conditions of life, 531;
literal inspiration of, 567;
blindness of, 572;
and Mahomet, 597;
extravagant opinions founded on, 650;
how to understand, 683, 686;
[Pg 297]against those who misuse passages of, 898

Self,
necessary to know, 66;
the little knowledge we have of, 175

Sensations, and molecules, 368

Senses,
perceptions of the, always true, 9;
perceive no extreme, 72;
mislead the reason, 83

Silence,
eternal, of infinite space, 206;
the greatest persecution, 919

Sin, original, 445, 446, 447

Sneezing, absorbs all the functions of the soul, 160

Soul,
immortality of the, 194, 219, 220;
immaterial, 349

Spongia solis, 91

Stoics, the, 350, 360, 465

Struggle, the, alone pleases us, 135

Style, charm of a natural, 29

Swiss, the, 305

Symmetry, 28

Synagogue, the, a type, 645, 851


Talent, chief, 118

Temple, reprobation of the, 712

Testaments,
proof of the two, at once, 641;
proof that the Old is figurative, 658;
the Old and the New, 665

Theology, a science, 115

Theresa, St., 499, 867, 916

Thought,
one, alone occupies us, 145;
constitutes man's greatness, 346;
and dignity, 365;
sometimes escapes us, 370, 372

Time, effects of, 122, 123

Truth,
nothing shows man the, 83;
different degrees in man's aversion to, 100;
the pretext that it is disputed, 261;
known by the heart, 282;
we desire, 437;
here is not the country of, 842;
obscure in these times, 863

Types, 570, 642, 643, 644, 645, 656, 657, 658, 669, 674, 678, 686;
the law typical, 646, 684;
some, clear and demonstrative, 649;
particular, 651, 652, 653;
are like portraits, 676, 677;
the sacrifices are, 679, 684

Tyranny, 332


Understanding, different kinds of, 2

Universe,
the relation of man to the, 72;
his superiority to it, 347


Vanity,
is anchored in man's heart, 150;
effects of, 151, 153;
curiosity only, 152;
little known, 161;
love and, 162, 163;
only youths do not see the world's, 164

Variety, 114, 115

Vices, some, only lay hold on us through others, 102

Virtues,
division of, 20;
measure of, 352;
excess of, 353, 357;
only the balancing of opposed vices, 359;
the true, 485


Weariness,
in leaving favourite pursuits, 128;
nothing so insufferable to man as, 131

Will,
natural for the, to love, 81;
one of the chief factors in belief, 99;
self-, will never be satisfied, 472;
is depraved, 477;
God prefers to incline the, rather than the intellect, 580

Words,
and meanings, 23, 50;
repeated in a discourse, 48;
superfluous, 49, 59

Works,
necessity to do good, 497;
external, 499

World,
the, a good judge of things, 327;
all the, under a delusion, 335;
all the, not astonished at its own weakness, 314;
all good maxims are in the, 380;
the, exists for the exercise of mercy and judgment, 583