"One-half of life is admitted by us..." - Quote by Blaise Pascal
One-half of life is admitted by us to be passed in sleep, in which, however, it may appear otherwise, we have no perception of truth, and all our feelings are delusions; who knows but the other half of life, in which we think we are awake, is a sleep also, but in some respects different from the other, and from which we wake when we, as we call it, sleep. As a man dreams often that he is dreaming, crowding one dreamy delusion on another.
More by Blaise Pascal
“What a chimera then is man. What a novelty! What a monster... what a contradiction, what a prodigy”
“The principles of pleasure are not firm and stable. They are different in all mankind, and variable in every particular with such a diversity that there is no man more different fromanother than from himself at different times.”
“The last thing that we find in making a book is to know what we must put first.”
More on Reality
“It is no use dealing with illusions and make-believes. We must look at the facts. The world ... is too dangerous for anyone to be able to afford to nurse illusions. We must look at realities.”
“Ideals are dangerous things. Realities are better. They wound, but they're better.”
“There is a terrible truthfulness about photography that sometimes makes a thing look ridiculous.”
More on Perception
“Then climate is a great impediment to idle persons; we often resolve to give up the care of the weather, but still we regard the clouds and the rain.”
“Pooh! Grown-ups are always thinking of uninteresting explanations.”
“The greater intellect one has, the more originality one finds in men. Ordinary persons find no difference between men.”