Pensées — Blaise Pascal

Pensées

Blaise Pascal · רישיון: Public domain · מקור

• There is internal war in man between reason and the passions. SECTION VI · ¶1152
• If he had only reason without passions ... SECTION VI · ¶1153
• If he had only passions without reason ... SECTION VI · ¶1154
• But having both, he cannot be without strife, being unable to be at peace with the one without being at war with the other. Thus he is always divided against, and opposed to himself. SECTION VI · ¶1155
• Men are so necessarily mad, that not to be mad would amount to another form of madness. SECTION VI · ¶1159
• For one denies the assumption of the other. One says, "He is not born for this end, for all his actions are repugnant to it." The other says, "He forsakes his end, when he does these base actions." SECTION VI · ¶1162
• This twofold nature of man is so evident that some have thought that we had two souls. A single subject seemed to them incapable of such sudden variations from unmeasured presumption to a dreadful dejection of heart. SECTION VI · ¶1166
• I will not allow man to depend upon himself, or upon another, to the end that being without a resting-place and without repose ... SECTION VI · ¶1170
• If he exalt himself, I humble him; if he humble himself, I exalt him; and I always contradict him, till he understands that he is an incomprehensible monster. SECTION VI · ¶1172
• I blame equally those who choose to praise man, those who choose to blame him, and those who choose to amuse themselves; and I can only approve of those who seek with lamentation. SECTION VI · ¶1174
• It is good to be tired and wearied by the vain search after the true good, that we may stretch out our arms to the Redeemer. SECTION VI · ¶1176
• All these contradictions, which seem most to keep me from the knowledge of religion, have led me most quickly to the true one. SECTION VI · ¶1181
• _Second part.--That man without faith cannot know the true good, nor justice._ SECTION VII · ¶1184
• And yet after such a great number of years, no one without faith has reached the point to which all continually look. All complain, princes and subjects, noblemen and commoners, old and young, strong and weak, learned and ignorant, healthy and sick, of all countries, all times, all ages, and all conditions. SECTION VII · ¶1186
• True nature being lost, everything becomes its own nature; as the true good being lost, everything becomes its own true good. SECTION VII · ¶1192
• Man does not know in what rank to place himself. He has plainly gone astray, and fallen from his true place without being able to find it again. He seeks it anxiously and unsuccessfully everywhere in impenetrable darkness. SECTION VII · ¶1194
• If it is a sign of weakness to prove God by nature, do not despise Scripture; if it is a sign of strength to have known these contradictions, esteem Scripture. SECTION VII · ¶1196
• The vileness of man in submitting himself to the brutes, and in even worshipping them. SECTION VII · ¶1198
• All other religions have not been able to do so. Let us see what the wisdom of God will do. SECTION VII · ¶1203
• "Such is the state in which men now are. There remains to them some feeble instinct of the happiness of their former state; and they are plunged in the evils of their blindness and their lust, which have become their second nature. SECTION VII · ¶1205
• If you are united to God, it is by grace, not by nature. If you are humbled, it is by penitence, not by nature. SECTION VII · ¶1209
• You are not in the state of your creation. SECTION VII · ¶1211
• As these two states are open, it is impossible for you not to recognise them. Follow your own feelings, observe yourselves, and see if you do not find the lively characteristics of these two natures. Could so many contradictions be found in a simple subject? SECTION VII · ¶1212
• --Incomprehensible.--Not all that is incomprehensible ceases to exist. Infinite number. An infinite space equal to a finite. SECTION VII · ¶1213
• Scepticism is true; for, after all, men before Jesus Christ did not know where they were, nor whether they were great or small. And those who have said the one or the other, knew nothing about it, and guessed without reason and by chance. They also erred always in excluding the one or the other. SECTION VII · ¶1224
• _Quod ergo ignorantes, quæritis, religio annuntiat vobis._[160] SECTION VII · ¶1225
• _After having understood the whole nature of man._--That a religion may be true, it must have knowledge of our nature. It ought to know its greatness and littleness, and the reason of both. What religion but the Christian has known this? SECTION VII · ¶1227
• These are the chief arguments on one side and the other. SECTION VII · ¶1231
• Shall he then say, on the contrary, that he certainly possesses truth--he who, when pressed ever so little, can show no title to it, and is forced to let go his hold? SECTION VII · ¶1236
• What a chimera then is man! What a novelty! What a monster, what a chaos, what a contradiction, what a prodigy! Judge of all things, imbecile worm of the earth; depositary of truth, a sink of uncertainty and error; the pride and refuse of the universe! SECTION VII · ¶1237
• Who will unravel this tangle? Nature confutes the sceptics, and reason confutes the dogmatists. What then will you become, O men! who try to find out by your natural reason what is your true condition? You cannot avoid one of these sects, nor adhere to one of them. SECTION VII · ¶1238
• Know then, proud man, what a paradox you are to yourself. Humble yourself, weak reason; be silent, foolish nature; learn that man infinitely transcends man, and learn from your Master your true condition, of which you are ignorant. Hear God. SECTION VII · ¶1239
• Whence it clearly seems that man by grace is made like unto God, and a partaker in His divinity, and that without grace he is like unto the brute beasts.] SECTION VII · ¶1245
• _Weakness._--Every pursuit of men is to get wealth; and they cannot have a title to show that they possess it justly, for they have only that of human caprice; nor have they strength to hold it securely. It is the same with knowledge, for disease takes it away. We are incapable both of truth and goodness. SECTION VII · ¶1251
• We desire truth, and find within ourselves only uncertainty. SECTION VII · ¶1253
• We seek happiness, and find only misery and death. SECTION VII · ¶1254
• We cannot but desire truth and happiness, and are incapable of certainty or happiness. This desire is left to us, partly to punish us, partly to make us perceive wherefrom we are fallen. SECTION VII · ¶1255
• If man is not made for God, why is he only happy in God? If man is made for God, why is he so opposed to God? SECTION VII · ¶1257
• _Nature corrupted._--Man does not act by reason, which constitutes his being. SECTION VII · ¶1259
• The corruption of reason is shown by the existence of so many different and extravagant customs. It was necessary that truth should come, in order that man should no longer dwell within himself. SECTION VII · ¶1261

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