Blaise Pascal

1623–1662 · French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer, and Christian philosopher

Topics: life, mathematics, software design, simplicity

• A few rules include all that is necessary for the perfection of the definitions, the axioms, and the demonstrations, and consequently of the entire method of the geometrical proofs of the art of persuading.

  — Blaise Pascal

• The eternal silence of these infinite spaces alarms me.

  — Blaise Pascal

• The best books are those, which those who read them believe they themselves could have written.

  — Blaise Pascal

• I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time.

  — Blaise Pascal

• The method of not erring is sought by all the world. The logicians profess to guide it, the geometricians alone attain it, and apart from science, and the imitations of it, there are no true demonstrations.

  — Blaise Pascal

• The mind must not be forced; artificial and constrained manners fill it with foolish presumption, through unnatural elevation and vain and ridiculous inflation, instead of solid and vigorous nutriment.

  — Blaise Pascal

• If we do not secure the foundation, we cannot secure the edifice.

  — Blaise Pascal

• People almost invariably arrive at their beliefs not on the basis of proof but on the basis of what they find attractive.

  — Blaise Pascal