Justice and power must be brought together, so that whatever is just may be powerful, and whatever is powerful may be just.
Blaise PascalRead
Fire. God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, not of the philosophers and the scholars. I will not forget thy word. Amen.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the importance of faith over intellectual understanding.
Blaise Pascal expresses a sentiment that true belief and connection to God come not from philosophical reasoning or scholarly interpretation, but from a deep, personal faith. He suggests that the divine relationship experienced by historical figures like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is distinct from the abstract concepts discussed by philosophers and scholars, highlighting a call to remember and cherish spiritual convictions from the heart.
In practice
This quote can be used during a religious service to emphasize the importance of personal faith.
Justice and power must be brought together, so that whatever is just may be powerful, and whatever is powerful may be just.
If we submit everything to reason our religion will be left with nothing mysterious or supernatural. If we offend the principles of reason our religion will be absurd and ridiculous . . . There are two equally dangerous extremes: to exclude reason, to admit nothing but reason.
Those are weaklings who know the truth and uphold it as long as it suits their purpose, and then abandon it.
Jesus is the God whom we can approach without pride and before whom we can humble ourselves without despair.
If he exalts himself, I humble him. If he humbles himself, I exalt him. And I go on contradicting him Until he understands That he is a monster that passes all understanding.
What use is it to us to hear it said of a man that he has thrown off the yoke that he does not believe there is a God to watch over his actions, that he reckons himself the sole master of his behavior, and that he does not intend to give an account of it to anyone but himself?
How then to enforce peace? Not by reason, certainly, nor by education. If a man could not look at the fact of peace and the fact of war and choose the former in preference to the latter, what additional argument could persuade him? What could be more eloquent as a condemnation of war than war itself? What tremendous feat of dialectic could carry with it a tenth the power of a single gutted ship with its ghastly cargo?
Beware the horns of a bull, the heels of the horse, and the smile of an Englishman.
The real history of consciousness starts with one's first lie.
When we are at the end of life, to die means to go away; when we are at the beginning, to go away means to die.
It starts when you begin to overlook good manners. Any time you quit hearing Sir and Mam the end is pretty much in sight.
We have to stop thinking of criminals as 'them' and admit to ourselves, 'There but for the grace of God go I.'
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.