Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction. – Blaise Pascal
Vanity is so secure in the heart of man that everyone wants to be admired: even I who write this, and you who read this. – Blaise Pascal
Justice and power must be brought together, so that whatever is just may be powerful, and whatever is powerful may be just. – Blaise Pascal
If all men knew what others say of them, there would not be four friends in the world. – Blaise Pascal
Each one of us is alone in the world… We seek pitifully to convey to others the treasures of our heart, but they have not the power to accept them, and so we go lonely, side by side but not together, unable to know our fellows and unknown by them. – W. Somerset Maugham, The Moon and Sixpence, 1919