Blaise Pascal (June 19, 1623-August 19, 1662) was a French physicist, mathematician and philosopher. Known as the “Father of the Science of Hydrostatics,” he helped develop the barometer, pioneered hydrodynamics and fluid mechanics, leading to his discovery of “Pascal’s Principle,” the basis of hydraulics. He made invaluable contributions in the areas of probability and differential calculus, with the invention of Pascal’s triangle for calculating the coefficients of a binomial expansion. His influential religious works, emphasizing “the reasons of the heart” over dry logic and intellect, were titled Lettres Provinciales, 1656-57, and Pensees Sur La Religion, published posthumously in 1670.
In Pensees, 1670, Blaise Pascal wrote:
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Blaise Pascal was known for the “Wager of Pascal,” which stated:
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In the work, Thoughts, Letters, and Opuscules, Blaise Pascal stated:
<We know God only through Jesus Christ. Without this Mediator, is taken away all communication with God; through Jesus Christ we know God. All those who have pretended to know God, and prove Him without Jesus Christ, have only had impotent proofs.
But, to prove Jesus Christ we have the prophecies which are good and valid proofs. And those prophecies, being fulfilled, and truly proved by the event, indicate the certainty of these truths, and therefore the truth of the divinity of Jesus Christ. In Him, and by Him, then, we know God. Otherwise, and without Scripture, without original sin, without a necessary Mediator, we cannot absolutely prove God, nor teach a good doctrine and sound morals.
But by Jesus Christ and in Jesus Christ, we prove God and teach doctrine and morals. Jesus Christ, then, is the true God of men. Not only do we know God only through Jesus Christ, but we know ourselves only through Jesus Christ.
We know life, death, only through Jesus Christ. Except by Jesus Christ we know not what life is, what our death is, what God is, what we ourselves are. Thus, without Scripture, which has only Jesus Christ for its object, we know nothing, and we see not only obscurity and confusion in the nature of God, but in nature herself.
Without Jesus Christ, man must be in sin and misery; with Jesus Christ, man is exempt from sin and misery. In Him is all our virtue, and all our felicity. Out of Him, there is nothing but sin, misery, error, darkness, death, and despair.> 1623BP003
After his death, this writing was found in Pascal’s effects:
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American Quotations by William J. Federer, 2024, All Rights Reserved, Permission granted to use with acknowledgement.
Endnotes:
1623BP001. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Blaise Pascal, 1670, in Pensees, No. 556. John Bartlett, Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1855, 1980), p. 300.
1623BP002. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Blaise Pascal. Wager of Pascal. Henry M. Morris, Men of Science-men of God (El Cajon, CA: Master Books, Creation Life Publishers, Inc., 1990), pp. 15-16.
1623BP003. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Blaise Pascal. O.W. Wight, translator from the French language, Thoughts, Letters, and Opuscules, pp. 334-335. Stephen Abbott Northrop, D.D., A Cloud of Witnesses (Portland, OR: American Heritage Ministries, 1987; Mantle Ministries, 228 Still Ridge, Bulverde, Texas), pp. 352-353.
1623BP004. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Blaise Pascal, 1662, in a writing of his found in his effects after his death. John Bartlett, Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1855, 1980), p. 300.
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