Gandurile lui Pascal

''Those who judge of a work by rule are in regard to others as
those who have a watch are in regard to others. One says, "It is two
hours ago"; the other says, "It is only three-quarters of an hour."
I look at my watch, and say to the one, "You are weary," and to the
other, "Time gallops with you"; for it is only an hour and a half ago,
and I laugh at those who tell me that time goes slowly with me and
that I judge by imagination. They do not know that I judge by my
watch. ''

"The greater intellect one has, the more originality one finds
in men. Ordinary persons find no difference between men. "

"When we wish to correct with advantage and to show another that
he errs, we must notice from what side he views the matter, for on
that side it is usually true, and admit that truth to him, but
reveal to him the side on which it is false. He is satisfied with
that, for he sees that he was not mistaken and that he only failed
to see all sides. Now, no one is offended at not seeing everything;
but one does not like to be mistaken, and that perhaps arises from the
fact that man naturally cannot see everything, and that naturally he
cannot err in the side he looks at, since the perceptions of our
senses are always true."

Order.- Why should I undertake to divide my virtues into
four rather than into six? Why should I rather establish virtue in
four, in two, in one? Why into Abstine et sustine* rather than into
"Follow Nature," or, "Conduct your private affairs without injustice,"
as Plato, or anything else? But there, you will say, everything is
contained in one word. Yes, but it is useless without explanation, and
when we come to explain it, as soon as we unfold this maxim which
contains all the rest, they emerge in that first confusion which you
desired to avoid. So, when they are all included in one, they are
hidden and useless, as in a chest, and never appear save in their
natural confusion. Nature has established them all without including
one in the other.

* "Abstain and uphold." Stoic maxim.

"Let no one say that I have said nothing new; the arrangement
of the subject is new. When we play tennis, we both play with the same
ball, but one of us places it better.
I had as soon it said that I used words employed before. And in
the same way if the same thoughts in a different arrangement do not
form a different discourse, no more do the same words in their
different arrangement form different thoughts! "

Certain authors, speaking of their works, say: "My book,"
"My commentary," "My history," etc. They resemble middle-class
people who have a house of their own and always have "My house" on
their tongue. They would do better to say: "Our book," "Our
commentary," "Our history," etc., because there is in them usually
more of other people's than their own.