dots-menu
×

Home  »  Familiar Quotations  »  Page 985

John Bartlett (1820–1905). Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. 1919.

Page 985

 
 
Blaise Pascal. (1623–1662) (continued)
 
9571
    Montaigne 1 is wrong in declaring that custom ought to be followed simply because it is custom, and not because it is reasonable or just.
          Thoughts. Chap. iv. 6.
9572
    Thus we never live, but we hope to live; and always disposing ourselves to be happy, it is inevitable that we never become so. 2
          Thoughts. Chap. v. 2.
9573
    If the nose of Cleopatra had been shorter, the whole face of the earth would have been changed.
          Thoughts. Chap. viii. 29.
9574
    The last thing that we find in making a book is to know what we must put first.
          Thoughts. Chap. ix. 30.
9575
    Rivers are highways that move on, and bear us whither we wish to go.
          Thoughts. Chap. ix. 38.
9576
    What a chimera, then, is man! what a novelty, what a monster, what a chaos, what a subject of contradiction, what a prodigy! A judge of all things, feeble worm of the earth, depositary of the truth, cloaca of uncertainty and error, the glory and the shame of the universe! 3
          Thoughts. Chap. x. 1.
9577
    We know the truth, not only by the reason, but also by the heart.
          Thoughts. Chap. x. 1.
9578
    For as old age is that period of life most remote from infancy, who does not see that old age in this universal man ought not to be sought in the times nearest his birth, but in those most remote from it? 4
          Preface to the Treatise on Vacuum.
 
Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux. (1636–1711)
 
9579
    Happy who in his verse can gently steer
From grave to light, from pleasant to severe. 5
          The Art of Poetry. Canto i. Line 75.
 
Note 1.
Book i. chap. xxii. [back]
Note 2.
See Pope, Quotation 9. [back]
Note 3.
See Pope, Quotation 23. [back]
Note 4.
See Bacon, Quotation 42. [back]
Note 5.
See Dryden, Quotation 64. [back]