“People almost invariably arrive at their beliefs not on the basis of proof but on the basis of what they find attractive.”
More from Pascal on Philosophy
“Man is but a reed, the weakest in nature, but he is a thinking reed.”
“Few men speak humbly of humility, chastely of chastity, skeptically of skepticism.”
“People are generally better persuaded by the reasons which they have themselves discovered than by those which have come into the mind of others.”
“Our nature consists in motion complete rest is death.”
“Contradiction is not a sign of falsity nor the lack of contradiction a sign of truth.”
“There are three sources of belief: reason, custom, inspiration.”
“The majority is the best way because it is visible and has strength to make itself obeyed. Yet it is the opinion of the least able.”
“Man is only a reed the weakest thing in nature but he is a thinking reed.”
Others on Philosophy
Ludwig Wittgenstein
22 quotes“The logic of the world is prior to all truth and falsehood.”
Christopher Hitchens
22 quotes“How much vanity must be concealed – not too effectively at that – in order to pretend that one is the personal object of...”
Nietzsche
22 quotes“One does not hate as long as one has a low esteem of someone, but only when one esteems him as an equal or a superior.”
Carl Jung
21 quotes“The pendulum of the mind oscillates between sense and nonsense, not between right and wrong.”
Immanuel Kant
20 quotes“Morality is not the doctrine of how we may make ourselves happy, but how we may make ourselves worthy of happiness.”
Heraclitus
19 quotes“All things flow nothing abides.”
H. L. Mencken
17 quotes“We are here and it is now. Further than that, all human knowledge is moonshine.”
C.S. Lewis
15 quotes“[Consciousness] is either inexplicable illusion, or else revelation.”
Fyodor Dostoevsky
14 quotes“Consciousness is man's greatest misfortune, still I know that man loves it and will not exchange it for any satisfaction...”
Napoleon
14 quotes“Nothing is more difficult, and therefore more precious, than to be able to decide.”
Samuel Beckett
14 quotes“The end is in the beginning and yet you go on.”
Isaac Asimov
13 quotes“Society is much more easily soothed than one's own conscience.”