Pensées — Blaise Pascal

Pensées

Blaise Pascal · License: Public domain · Source

• How hollow and full of ribaldry is the heart of man! Part I, 1, 2, c. 1, section 4.[44] · ¶45
• Man is obviously made to think. It is his whole dignity and his whole merit; and his whole duty is to think as he ought. Now, the order of thought is to begin with self, and with its Author and its end. Part I, 1, 2, c. 1, section 4.[44] · ¶46
• Now, of what does the world think? Never of this, but of dancing, playing the lute, singing, making verses, running at the ring, etc., fighting, making oneself king, without thinking what it is to be a king and what to be a man. Part I, 1, 2, c. 1, section 4.[44] · ¶46
• We are so presumptuous that we would wish to be known by all the world, even by people who shall come after, when we shall be no more; and we are so vain that the esteem of five or six neighbours delights and contents us. Part I, 1, 2, c. 1, section 4.[44] · ¶46
• We do not trouble ourselves about being esteemed in the towns through which we pass. But if we are to remain a little while there, we are so concerned. How long is necessary? A time commensurate with our vain and paltry life. Part I, 1, 2, c. 1, section 4.[44] · ¶46
• _Glory._--Admiration spoils all from infancy. Ah! How well said! Ah! How well done! How well-behaved he is! etc. Part I, 1, 2, c. 1, section 4.[44] · ¶47
• The children of Port-Royal, who do not receive this stimulus of envy and glory, fall into carelessness. Part I, 1, 2, c. 1, section 4.[44] · ¶47
• _Pride._--Curiosity is only vanity. Most frequently we wish to know but to talk. Otherwise we would not take a sea voyage in order never to talk of it, and for the sole pleasure of seeing without hope of ever communicating it. Part I, 1, 2, c. 1, section 4.[44] · ¶47
• _Of the desire of being esteemed by those with whom we are._--Pride takes such natural possession of us in the midst of our woes, errors, etc. We even lose our life with joy, provided people talk of it. Part I, 1, 2, c. 1, section 4.[44] · ¶47
• Vanity: play, hunting, visiting, false shame, a lasting name. Part I, 1, 2, c. 1, section 4.[44] · ¶47
• _Ferox gens, nullam esse vitam sine armis rati._[73]--They prefer death to peace; others prefer death to war. Part I, 1, 2, c. 1, section 4.[44] · ¶48
• Every opinion may be held preferable to life, the love of which is so strong and so natural.[74] Part I, 1, 2, c. 1, section 4.[44] · ¶48
• Contradiction: contempt for our existence, to die for nothing, hatred of our existence. Part I, 1, 2, c. 1, section 4.[44] · ¶48
• _Pursuits._--The charm of fame is so great, that we like every object to which it is attached, even death. Part I, 1, 2, c. 1, section 4.[44] · ¶48
• _Vanity._--How wonderful it is that a thing so evident as the vanity of the world is so little known, that it is a strange and surprising thing to say that it is foolish to seek greatness! Part I, 1, 2, c. 1, section 4.[44] · ¶49
• He who will know fully the vanity of man has only to consider the causes and effects of love. The cause is a _je ne sais quoi_ (Corneille),[76] and the effects are dreadful. This _je ne sais quoi_, so small an object that we cannot recognise it, agitates a whole country, princes, armies, the entire world. Part I, 1, 2, c. 1, section 4.[44] · ¶49
• Cleopatra's nose: had it been shorter, the whole aspect of the world would have been altered. Part I, 1, 2, c. 1, section 4.[44] · ¶49
• _Vanity._--The cause and the effects of love: Cleopatra. Part I, 1, 2, c. 1, section 4.[44] · ¶50
• _Thoughts._--_In omnibus requiem quæsivi._[77] If our condition were truly happy, we would not need diversion from thinking of it in order to make ourselves happy. Part I, 1, 2, c. 1, section 4.[44] · ¶50
• _Diversion._--Death is easier to bear without thinking of it, than is the thought of death without peril. Part I, 1, 2, c. 1, section 4.[44] · ¶50
• The miseries of human life have established all this: as men have seen this, they have taken up diversion. Part I, 1, 2, c. 1, section 4.[44] · ¶50
• _Diversion._--As men are not able to fight against death, misery, ignorance, they have taken it into their heads, in order to be happy, not to think of them at all. Part I, 1, 2, c. 1, section 4.[44] · ¶51
• Despite these miseries, man wishes to be happy, and only wishes to be happy, and cannot wish not to be so. But how will he set about it? To be happy he would have to make himself immortal; but, not being able to do so, it has occurred to him to prevent himself from thinking of death. Part I, 1, 2, c. 1, section 4.[44] · ¶51
• They say that eclipses foretoken misfortune, because misfortunes are common, so that, as evil happens so often, they often foretell it; whereas if they said that they predict good fortune, they would often be wrong. They attribute good fortune only to rare conjunctions of the heavens; so they seldom fail in prediction. Part I, 1, 2, c. 1, section 4.[44] · ¶52
• _Misery._--Solomon[79] and Job have best known and best spoken of the misery of man; the former the most fortunate, and the latter the most unfortunate of men; the former knowing the vanity of pleasures from experience, the latter the reality of evils. Part I, 1, 2, c. 1, section 4.[44] · ¶52
• We know ourselves so little, that many think they are about to die when they are well, and many think they are well when they are near death, unconscious of approaching fever,[80] or of the abscess ready to form itself. Part I, 1, 2, c. 1, section 4.[44] · ¶52
• Macrobius:[83] on the innocents slain by Herod. Part I, 1, 2, c. 1, section 4.[44] · ¶53
• When Augustus learnt that Herod's own son was amongst the infants under two years of age, whom he had caused to be slain, he said that it was better to be Herod's pig than his son.--Macrobius, _Sat._, book ii, chap. 4. Part I, 1, 2, c. 1, section 4.[44] · ¶53
• The great and the humble have the same misfortunes, the same griefs, the same passions;[84] but the one is at the top of the wheel, and the other near the centre, and so less disturbed by the same revolutions. Part I, 1, 2, c. 1, section 4.[44] · ¶53
• We are so unfortunate that we can only take pleasure in a thing on condition of being annoyed if it turn out ill, as a thousand things can do, and do every hour. He who should find the secret of rejoicing in the good, without troubling himself with its contrary evil, would have hit the mark. It is perpetual motion. Part I, 1, 2, c. 1, section 4.[44] · ¶53
• We run carelessly to the precipice, after we have put something before us to prevent us seeing it. Part I, 1, 2, c. 1, section 4.[44] · ¶54
• A letter to incite to the search after God. SECTION III · ¶545
• And then to make people seek Him among the philosophers, sceptics, and dogmatists, who disquiet him who inquires of them. SECTION III · ¶546
• The conduct of God, who disposes all things kindly, is to put religion into the mind by reason, and into the heart by grace. But to will to put it into the mind and heart by force and threats is not to put religion there, but terror, _terorrem potius quam religionem_. SECTION III · ¶548
• _Nisi terrerentur et non docerentur, improba quasi dominatio videretur_ (Aug., Ep. 48 or 49), _Contra Mendacium ad Consentium_. SECTION III · ¶550
• _Order._--Men despise religion; they hate it, and fear it is true. To remedy this, we must begin by showing that religion is not contrary to reason; that it is venerable, to inspire respect for it; then we must make it lovable, to make good men hope it is true; finally, we must prove it is true. SECTION III · ¶552
• Venerable, because it has perfect knowledge of man; lovable, because it promises the true good. SECTION III · ¶553
• In every dialogue and discourse, we must be able to say to those who take offence, "Of what do you complain?" SECTION III · ¶555
• To begin by pitying unbelievers; they are wretched enough by their condition. We ought only to revile them where it is beneficial; but this does them harm. SECTION III · ¶557
• To pity atheists who seek, for are they not unhappy enough? To inveigh against those who make a boast of it. SECTION III · ¶559

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