"Distraction is the only thing that consoles..." - Quote by Blaise Pascal

“Noble deeds that are concealed are most esteemed.”

“Our imagination so magnifies this present existence, by the power of continual reflection on it, and so attenuates eternity, by not thinking of it at all, that we reduce an eternity to nothingness, and expand a mere nothing to an eternity; and this habit is so inveterately rooted in us that all the force of reason cannot induce us to lay it aside.”

“All mankind's unhappiness derives from one thing: his inability to know how to remain in repose in one room.”

“All mankind's troubles are caused by one single thing, which is their inability to sit quietly.”

“There is nothing like suspense and anxiety for barricading a human's mind against the Enemy. He wants men to be concerned with what they do; our business is to keep them thinking about what will happen to them.”

“A multitude of books distracts the mind.”

“Every midwife knowsthat not until a mother’s wombsoftens from the pain of laborwill a way unfoldand the infant find that opening to be born.Oh friend!There is treasure in your heart,it is heavy with child.Listen.All the awakened ones,like trusted midwives are saying,'welcome this pain.It opens the dark passage of Grace.”

“That human life must be some kind of mistake is sufficiently proved by the simple observation that man is a compound of needs which are hard to satisfy; that their satisfaction achieves nothing but a painless condition in which he is only given over to boredom . . .”

“Who can attain to anything great if he does not feel in himself the force and will to inflict great pain? The ability to suffer is a small matter: in that line, weak women and even slaves often attain masterliness. But not to perish from internal distress and doubt when one inflicts great suffering and hears the cry of it that is great, that belongs to greatness.”