Blaise Pascal Quotes on Belief & Faith (13 Quotes)

It is your own assent to yourself, and the constant voice of your own reason, and not of others, that should make you believe.

Belief is a wise wager. Granted that faith cannot be proved, what harm will come to you if you gamble on its truth and it proves false? If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager, then, without hesitation, that He exists.

Faith embraces many truths which seem to contradict each other.

To deny, to believe, and to doubt absolutely -- this is for man what running is for a horse.

If we let ourselves believe that man began with divine grace, that he forfeited this by sin, and that he can be redeemed only by divine grace through the crucified Christ then we shall find a peace of mind never granted to philosophers. He who cannot believe is cursed, for he reveals by his unbelief that God has not chosen to give him grace.

To deny, to believe, and to doubt well are to a man as the race is to a horse.

Faith indeed tells what the senses do not tell, but not the contrary of what they see. It is above them and not contrary to them.

Faith is different from proof; the latter is human, the former is a Gift from God.

Thus our first interest and our first duty is to enlighten ourselves on this subject, whereon depends all our conduct. Therefore among those who do not believe, I make a vast difference between those who strive with all their power to inform themselv

Faith is a sounder guide than reason. Reason can only go so far, but faith has no limits.

Faith certainly tells us what the senses do not, but not the contrary of what they see; it is above, not against them.

Unbelievers think they have made great efforts to get at the truth when they have spent a few hours in reading some book out of Holy Scripture, and have questioned some cleric about the truths of the faith. After that, they boast that they have searched in books and among men in vain.

We like security: we like the pope to be infallible in matters of faith, and grave doctors to be so in moral questions so that we can feel reassured.