THE LIGHTHOUSE LIBRARY
OF GREAT THINKERS
BLAISE PASCAL
THOUGHTS
ON
RELIGION
AND
PHILOSOPHY
BY
BLAISE PASCAL
TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH
BY
ISAAC TAYLOR
AUTHOR OF " A NATURAL HISTORY OF ENTHUSIASM
EDINBURGH
OTTO SCHULZE & COMPANY
20 SOUTH FREDERICK STREET
I
B
CONTENTS
PAGE
A GENERAL VlEW OF MAN .... 1
X
\ THE VANITY OF MAN, AND THE EFFECTS OF SELF-LOVE 14
THE WEAKNESS OF MAN; THE UNCERTAINTY OF
NATURAL KNOWLEDGE . . . .23
ON THE UNHAPPINESS OF MAN . . . .48
ON THE NECESSITY OF STUDYING RELIGION . . 66
ON THE ADVANTAGES OF RELIGIOUS BELIEF . . 83
MARKS OF THE TRUE RELIGION . . . .93
THE TRUTH OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION PROVED BY
THE CONTRARIETIES IN MAN, AND BY ORIGINAL SIN 109
THE SUBMISSION AND THE USE OF REASON . .125
THE DESIGN OF GOD IN CONCEALING HIMSELF FROM
SOME, AND DISCOVERING HIMSELF TO OTHERS . 130
MISCELLANEOUS THOUGHTS ON RELIGION . .139
DETACHED MORAL THOUGHTS . 210
THOUGHTS
OF BLAISE PASCAL
i
A GENERAL VIEW OF MAN
1. The first thing presented to the self-
observation of Man, is his body, that is to say,
a certain portion of matter peculiar to himself.
But to comprehend what this is, he must com-
pare it with every thing above and below him,
that thus he may ascertain his just limits.
Let him, then, not confine his attention to
the objects that are close around him : let him
contemplate all Nature in its awful and finished ^C
magnificence ; let him observe that splendid
luminary, set forth as an eternal lamp to en
lighten the universe ; let him view the Earth
as a mere speck within the vast circuit de-
THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
scribed by that luminary ; let him think with
amazement, that this vast circuit itself is only
a minute point, compared with that formed by
the revolutions of the stars. And though sight
stops here, let imagination pass onwards. Even
this faculty will fail in conceiving sooner than
Nature in furnishing materials for its exercise.
All that we see of the creation, is but an almost
imperceptible streak in the vast expanse of the
universe. No idea of ours can approximate to
its immense extent. However we may amplify
..our conceptions, they will still be mere atoms
in comparison with the reality of things. This
is ari_jnfinitfi sphere fog p.pnf.rp of wTiip.h jg
everywhere, fout its cir^^f(pp>no^ nowhprp.
In short, it is one of the greatest sensible
evidences of the almightiness of God, that
/ our imagination is .overwhelmed by these
rpflppfio™: ^ Ju*3$* fyU*^ 4 fl44&* 4 f&
reflections, ^^^;^^
Let man reverting to himself, consider what
he is, comparedjffitlL-alLto Let him
behold himself a wanderer in this secluded
province of nature, and by what he can see
from the little dungeon in which he finds him
self lodged, (I mean the visible universe), let
2
THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
him learn to make a right estimate of the
earth, its kingdoms, its cities and himself.
Man, then, existing here in the midst of
infinity, who can tell what to make of him ?
But to show him another prodigy equally
astonishing, let him examine the most minute
objects he is acquainted with. A mite, for.
example, will exhibit, in its diminutive body,
parts incomparably less : limbs with their joints,
veins in these limbs, blood in these veins,
humours in this blood ; drops in these humours,
vapours in these drops ; and analysing the last-
mentioned objects, let him stretch his powers
of conception to the utmost, and the most
minute particle he can descry shall be our
topic. Perhaps he may suppose that this must
be the extreme of littleness in Nature. But
even this contains a new abyss for him to
behold. I will represent to him, not only
the visible juniverse, but all he can conceive
ns pxisting in infinite space, comprised in
this imperceptible atom. Here let him behold
an infinity of systems, each with its firmament,
its planets, its earth, in the same proportion
~° the visible universe : in this earth, he will
3
THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
find animals and even mites, consisting of a
similar variety of parts as the former, and
these again capable of sub-division without
cessation and without end. Let him lose him
self in these wonders, as astonishing for their
littleness as the others for their magnitude.
For who can help being amazed, that a human
x body,, scarcely discernible in our system, and
that again, lost in the immensity of Nature,
should, nevertheless, be a colossus, a system
of worlds, or rath^£^jaL_jmi^
wijJuthal extrem^littleness, which our per_cep-
caii never reach ? Whoever takes such
a view will be alarmed to behold himself, as
it were, suspended, in the material vehicle
assigned him by Nature, between the two
abysses of infinity and nonentity, from each
of which he is equally distant. . . He will
tremble at the sight of these wonders ; and
I believe that his curiosity changing into
admiration, he will be more disposed to con
template them in silence, than to explore
them with presumption.
For, finally, what is the rank man occupies
in Nature ? A nonentity, as contrasted with
4
THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
c infinity ; a universe, contrasted with nonentity :
a middle something between every thing and
nothing. He is infinitely remote from these^
two extremes : his existence is not less distant
from the nonentity out of which he is taken,
than from the infinity in which he is ingulfe
His intellect holds the same rank, in the order
of intelligences, as his body in the material
universe, and all it can attain is, to catch
some glimpses of objects that occupy the
middle, in eternal despair of knowing either
extreme. — All things have sprung from nothing ^
and are borne forward to infinity. Who can
follow out such an astonishing career? The
Author of these wonders, and He alone, can
comprehend them.
This condition, the mirlrll^, nqjnftly, hef.wgen <j
two extremes, is a characteristic of all our
faculties. Our senses perceive nothing in the \
extreme. A verv loud sound deafens us; a
m> . - , ,,.. n^ y.-i, _.._..--- — ,-u-_- --- _ -T.Lr
very intense light blinds us ; a very great or
a very short distance disables our vision ;
excessive length or excessive brevity obscures
discourse; too much pleasure cloys, and un-
harmony offends us. Extreme heat, or
5
THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
extreme cold, destroys sensation. Any qualities
jn_excess are hurtful to us, and pass beyond the
range of our senses. We cannot be said to feel
.them, but to endure them. Extreme youth and
extreme old age alike enfeeble the mind ; too
nmch, or too little food, disturbs_jts operation ;
too much, or too little instruction, represses
its vigourT Extremes"areTo us as though they
exist, and we are nothing in refer
ence to them. They elude us, or we elude
then.
Such is our real state ; ourjjcquirements are
^confined within limits which we cannot pass,
alike incapable of attaining universal know
ledge or of remaining in total ignorance. We^
are in the middle of a vast expanse, always
unfixed, fluctuating between ignorance __and
knowledge: if we think of advancing lurther.
our object shifts its position and eludes our
grasp ; it steals away and takes an eternal
flight that nothing can arrest. This is our
natural condition, altogether contrary, how-
ever, to ouf~ inclinations. We are inflamed
W*^L JL_d^re _°C J^Loriftg eveiT thing, and
of building a tower that shall rise into^ infinity,
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THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
but our edifice is shattered to pieces, and the
ground beneath it discloses a profound abyss.
2. I can easily conceive a man existing with
out hands or feet, and I could conceive him too
without a head, did I not know from experience
that this is the part in which he exercises
thought. It is thought, then, that constitutes
the essence of man, and without which we_can
form no conception of himv What is that by
which we are sensible of pleasure ? Is it the
hand ? is it the arm ? is it the flesh ? is it
the blood ? We perceive that it must be *-
something immaterial.
3. Man is so great, that his greatness appears +>
even in knowing himself to be miserable. A
tree has no sense of misery. It is true, that
to know we are miserable is: to be miserabla.;
but to know we are miserable is also to be
great. Thus all the miseries of man prove his
grandeur ; they are the miseries of a dignified
personage, the miseries of a dethroned monarch.
4. Who ever felt unhappy in not being a
7
THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
king, except a deposed sovereign ? Was
Paulus Emilius unhappy in being no longer
Consul? On the contrary, every one might
see he was happy in ceasing to hold that
office, because to resign it after a limited
period, was a condition of its assumption.
But Perseus, who had expected to be always
a king, was so wretched when no longer on
the throne, that it seemed strange that he
could endure to live. Is any person un
happy because he has only one mouth ? but
who would not be unhappy in having only
one eye ? It is never any man's fancy to
lament he has not three eyes, but it is felt to
be very distressing to have but one.
5. We have so exalted a conception of the
human soul that we cannot endure its con
tempt, or bear the want of its approbation :
in short, all the felicity of men consists in
possessing this approbation. While in one
view the false glory which men pursue is a
striking mark of their misery and degradation,
it is also a proof of the dignity of their nature.
For whatever may be a man's possessions in
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THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
the world, whatever of health or other im
portant good he may enjoy, yet isjie dissatisfied
if he__^s^not the esteem of his fellow-men. r
Such is the value he sets on the approbation
of mankind, that however elevated his con
dition in life may be, Jhe deems himself
unfortunate if he does not occupy an analogous
elevation in- the general regard. This is
accounted the n^^ jleHghtful situation in the
world; and to desire it is tKeT most uncon
querable propensity of the human heart.
Even those ^ ^o _mi)jst_despise mankind, and
would put them _ on _a level with the brutes,
still covet admiration ; and thus their own
feelings contradict the contempt they assume.
Nature, more powerful than all their reason,
convinces them more forcibly of the grandeur
of man, than reason can convince them of his
degradation.
6. Man is the feeblest reed in existence, but >
he is~a thinking reed. There is no need that ^
the universe be armed for his destruction ; a
noxious vapour, a drop of water is enough to
cmuse~Tife death. But though the universe
9
THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
were to destroy him, man would be more noble
than his destroyer, for he would know that
he was dying, while the universe would know
nothing of its own achievement. Thus all our
Dignity consists in the thinking principle, This,
and not space and duration, is what elevates
>) us. — Let us labour then to think aright ; here
is the foundation of morals.
i
7. It is dangerous to show man in how
,^ many respects he resembles the inferior
animals, without pointing out .his grandeur.
It is also dangerous to direct his attention to
his grandeur without keeping him aware of his
degradation. It is still more dangerous To
leave him ignorant of both ; but to exhibit
both to him will be most beneficial.
8. Let man then estimate himself justly.
4 Let him love himself, for he has a nature
capable of good ; but let him not, on this
account, love the vileness that adheres to it.
Let him despise himself because this capacity
for good has been left vacant, but let him not
despise the capacity itself. Let him hate him-
10
THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
self; let him love himself. He is capable of
knowing truth ^d^f being happy : but he has
not the constant or satisfactory possession of
truth. I wish, then, that he might, h^ AYmtpH
to desire truth, and so freed from his passions
as to pursue the right course for finding it;
and aware how much his knowledge is ob
scured by his passions, I wish him to hate
those corrupt desires which would conform
him to themselves, that they may neither blind
him while making his choice nor frustrate that
choice, when he has made it.
\i 9. I blame equally those who make it their
sole business to extol man, and those who take
on them to blame him, and those also who
attempt to amuse him. I can approve none
but those who examine his nature with sorrow
and compassion.
The Stoics said, Retire into yourselves, there
you will find repose : but this was not true ; —
others said, Go out of yourselves and seek for
happiness in amusement : and this, too, was
wrong. There are diseases ready to destroy
these delusions : happiness can be found
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THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
neither in ourselves nor in external things,
~but in God and in ourselves as united to
Him.
10. There are two ways of taking account
of the nature of man: That in which we
consider him in relation to the final objects
of his being ; — and in this view he is grand
and incomprehensible : and that in which we
allow our judgment of him to be formed by
the mere habitual sight of his actions, exclud
ing his spiritual essence (animum arcendi) from
our consideration, as our judgment of horses
and dogs is formed from being accustomed
to see them run — man regarded in this light
only, is abject and worthless. These are the
two modes of judging of human nature which
have produced so many disputes among phil
osophers ; one party denies what the other
assumes. One says, Man was* not born for
such an end, for all his actions are in con
tradiction to it ; the other says, Man renounces
his true end in acting so vilely. Two things
A may acquaint man with the whole constitution
of his nature, Instinct and Experience.
12
THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
11. I perceive it is possible I might not
have existed, for my essence consists in the
thinking principle; therefore I, this thinking
being, should never have existed, had my
mother been killed before I was animated : —
then I am not a necessary being. Nor am I
eternal or infinite, but I see plainly, that there
is in nature, a necessary, eternal, and infinite
Being.
13
THE VANITY OF MAN, AND THE
EFFECTS OF SELF-LOVE
I 1. We are not content with the life we have
in ourselves, and in our individual being ; we
4 wish to live an imaginary life in the thoughts
of others, and for this purpose, strive to make
La figure in the world. We labour incessantly
to cherish and adorn this imaginary being,
and neglect the real one ; and if we possess
tranquillity, or generosity, or fidelity, we are
eager to make it known, that such virtues may
be transferred to this creature of the imagina
tion ; in order to effect their union with it, we
are willing to detach them from ourselves,
and would be content to be cowards, if we
could only gain the repute of being valiant.
What a proof of the nothingness of our real
being, that it will not satisfy us without the
other, for which, indeed, we often relinquish it !
14
THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
A man who would not part with his life to
preserve his honour would be esteemed in
famous. Glory is so very delightful, that with
whatever it is combined, even with death itself,
we still love it.
2. Pride is a counterpoise to all our miseries,"}
for either it conceals them, or, if it discovers
them, flatters us for being so wise as to know
them. Amidst all our errors and miseries,
it clings to us so tenaciously that we make a
surrender of our lives with joy, provided menj
will talk about it.
3. Vanity is so rooted in the human heart,
that a foot-boy, or a porter will contrive to -
have a little knot of admirers about him ; and
philosophers do just the same. Those whov
write against glory, covet the glory of having
written well, and those who read them wish for
the glory of having read. I who am writing
this remark, have, perhaps, a similar desire, and
so, perhaps, will those have who read it.
iTO:. jln spite of the sense of all the miseries
15
THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
which fasten upon us, and threaten our very
existence, we have a tendency to elevation
which cannot be repressed.
are so arrogant, that we wish to be
known all over the world, and even by persons
who will not come into existence till we are
no more ; yet we are so vain, that the respect
of five or six persons about us, amuses, and for
a time satisfies us.
6. Curiosity is nothing but vanity. Men in
general wish for knowledge merely that they
may talk about it. They would never take
a voyage, if they were only to enjoy their
adventures, without the prospect of conversing
with some one respecting them.
. , Persons are not concerned about their
^reputation in towns which they only pass
through ; but if they stop anywhere a little
time, it becomes a matter of importance.
And how long must this stay be ? A time
proportioned to our vain and petty exist
ence.
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THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
T ft^1^ _ ^ /
^The^ essence of self-love, is to love onljjv
one's-self; to be interested for nothing but A1*/
one's-self. But what is gained by this? A
man cannot prevent this object of his love
from being full of defects and miseries : he
wishes to be great, and sees himself to be little ;
heTjwishes to be happy, and feels himself
miserable ; he wishes to be perfect, and sees
himself full of imperfections ; he wishes to be
an object of the esteem and love of his fellow-
nien,_aiid^ees that his feults deserve their
most unjust and criminal passion
imaginable; for he conceives a mortal hatred
against that truth which forces him to behold
and condemn his faults ; he wishes it were
annihilated, and unable to destroy it in its
essence, he endeavours to destroy it to his
ow*i apprehension, and that of others ; that is,
he employs - his utmost efforts to conceal his
defecte,_both_ fronLJiimself and others, and
cannot bear that men should point them out
to Jam, or even see them. Cerattftly, tS b^fiill
of defects is an evifj; but it is p, i^^Tcl/giWter
evil, if we are full ( of them, tp/t>e rmwiping
"~o~ 17
THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
Y
V-^to know the fact, since this is adcfing a
voluntary illusion to their number. We are
not willing that others should impose on us ;
we deem it unjust that they should wish for
more of our esteem than they deserve, but by
the same rule it is wrong to deceive them, or
to wish that they should esteem us more than
we deserve.
"* •* -jd^r^.j"'^
* > fT™!1611 others, therefor^ discover the im
perfections and vices that really belong to us,
it is evident they do us no wrong, since they
are not the cause of them : in fact, they render
v us a service, by helping to rid us of ^tt least
^one evil — ignorance of our imperfections,. JWe
- ought not to be irritated that men know our
faults, it being quite right both that they
should know us to be what we are, and that
they should despise us, if we are despicable.
Snob are the_sentiments which would rise in a
heart imbued _ with equity and j ustice. What
then shall be said of our hearts, which betray
quite a contrary disposition? For is it not
Jhat we hate the truth, and these
••
wbg_spea|LJ[tJ^ should be
deceived in^jun^favour, and that we wish to
18
THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
be esteemed by them as different' from what we
There is one proof of this which affects me
with horror. The Catholic religion does not
enjoin the confession of sins indiscriminately
to all the world ; it allows them to remain
concealed from all persons excepting one, to ,
whom it requires the heart to be exposed
without reserve, that he may judge of its true
condition. There is but one man in the world
whom it commands us to undeceive, and he is
bound to an inviolable secrecy : so that the
knowledge entrusted to him, is as if nothing
were known. Can any thing be imagined more
charitable and more lenient ?
Nevertheless, such is the corruption of
human nature, that this regulation has been
complained of as severe, and w^s one of the
chief reasons which prompted n great part of
Europe to revolt from the Church.
How perverse and unreasonable is the
human heart, to be offended at an obligation ;
to do thaj^to-efte.^iQan, which, uT"some sense,
is due to all : for is it right that we should
19
THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
There are different degrees of this aversion
to th^4cuth^ But we may affirm that, in some
measure, it exists in all men, for it is insepar
able from selfJoY£-J' It is this false delicacy
that compels those who have occasion to
reprove others, to employ such address and
nicety in the selection of opportunities. In
order to avoid giving offence, they must ex
tenuate our faults, and affect to excuse them,
and mingle with their censures, compliments
and expressions of affection and esteem. And
with all these mixtures, the medicine is still
bitter to self-love ; it takes as little of the
preparation as possible — always with disgust,
and often with secret resentment against those
who administer it.
I^Bence it comes^ to pass, that if any persons
_ J are jolicitous to gain our : kind regard, they
Fiavoid a service which they know would be
disagreeable to us ; they treat us as we wish
to be treatedjzrzwe hate the truth, they with-
^ hold it ; we like to be flattered, they flatter us ;
we like to be deceived, they deceive us.
This isjthe^cause, that every advance of good
fortune, which raises us in the world, removes
20
THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
us so much faxther from the truth, because
there _is_a greater fear of offending those whose
is v^r YduaHe^jand whose aversion is
A prince may be the scorn
be the only person who does
not know it. I do not wonder at this. JTo
speak the truth might be useful to him who
should hear it, but would be disadvantageous
to those who should tell it, for they would
incur his hatred. And courtiers love their
own interests better than that of their prince,
and therefore are not disposed to promote his
advantage at the cost of injuring themselves.
This misfortune is doubtless most incident,
and that in its worst degree, to the higher A 3/
orders of society ; but men of the lowest rank /
are not exempt from it, because in all stations
there is something which makes it desirable to
have men's good-will. JAnd thus human life is
nothing but a perpetual illusion, an interchange
oFflatfery and deception. ^Sone speak of^ us
injimr presence as they_do in our absence.
The union maintained among men is founded
on this reciprocal deceit; and most friendships
would be at an end if every one knew what
21
}
THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
his^ f Fiend- ^says^f him when he is "out of
hearing^jthough what is then said be spoken
sincerely and dispassionately.
"Man, therefore, is nothing but disguise,
lalsehoodTlind liypocrisy, both towards himself
and ott\er& He does not wish the tratinS? be
spoken to him, he avoids speaking it to others ;
and all these dispositions, so alien from justice
and reasons-are the natural growth of his
heart.
to
THE WEAKNESS OF MAN ; THE UNCER
TAINTY OF NATURAL KNOWLEDGE
1. Nothing astonishes me so much, as to see
that mankind are not astonished at their own
weakness. Every man goes through the
business of life, and follows his profession,
not under the notion that it is best so to do,
in deference to the sentiments and habits of
the community, but as if he knew with cer
tainty the precise line of reason and justice.
Men are perpetually deceived, and by a
ridiculous humility suppose it is their own
fault, and not that of the art which they always
pride themselves on possessing. It is well,
however, that there are so many persons of
this sort in the world, for it shows that no
opinions are too extravagant for mankind to
adopt ; if they are capable of believing, that,
so far from being naturally and unavoidably
23
THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
liable to err, they naturally possess wisdom
fully adequate to the conduct of life.
2. The weakness of human reason is much
more apparent in those who are not sensible
of it, than in those who know it. /When very
young, our judgment is feeble, and so it is in
V\ extreme old age. If we do not think enough,
or if we think too intensely, we become fanciful
and unable to discover truth. If we examine
our work as soon as it is finished, we are too
much prepossessed in its favour ; if we defer
examining it too long, we cannot enter into its
spirit. There is a certain indivisible point
which is the proper focus for viewing a picture ;
every other is too near or too distant, too high
or too low. Perspective assigns this point in
the art of painting, but in truth and morals who
shall assign it ?
3. That mistress of Error, called Fancy and
.*. Opinion, deceives us more effectually, because
she does not always deceive us ; for she would
be an infallible rule of truth, if she were an
infallible rule of falsehood. As she is not
24
THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
constantly, though most frequently false, she
gives no distinctive mark of her agency, but
impresses the same character on truth and
falsehood.
This haughty power, the enemy of that
reason which (in order to show the universality
of her sway,) she is delighted to control and
overrule, has infused into man a second nature.
She reckons among her votaries, the happy,
and the unhappy ; the healthy, and the sick ;
the rich, and the poor ; the wise, and the un
wise ; and nothing affects us with deeper
regret, than to observe, that the satisfaction
she imparts to them, is much more abundant
and unmingled, than that communicated by
reason. Men of lively parts who indulge in
flights of the imagination, can please themselves
to a degree far beyond the reach of those
thoughtful persons, who seek for gratification
in Ijie^scJber exercises of reflection. The latter
dispute with fear and diffidence, the former
with boldness and assurance ; they look down
upon others with an air of command ; and their
easy unembarrassed mien often gives them the
advantage in the opinion of bystanders : such
D 25
THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
is the estimation in which these sages of the
imagination are held by judges equally pro
found ! Opinion cannot make fools wise,
but she makes them content, to the dis
paragement of reason, who makes her friends
miserable. The partisans of the one are
covered with glory, those of the other with
shame.
Who, in fact, is the dispenser of reputation ?
By whom, are respect and veneration awarded,
to persons even of the highest rank, and to all
the works of men, unless it be by Opinion ?
How unsatisfactory are all the riches of the
world without her approbation !
Every thing is regulated by Opinion ; she is
the criterion of beauty, justice, and happiness,
the three things which make up the world.
I should very much like to see an Italian book,
of which I know only the title ; but that alone
is worth volumes : " Delia Opinione regina del
mondo." " Of Opinion the queen of the world."
I subscribe to its truth, without having read it,
of course excepting the objectionable parts,
if there be any such, of which, however, the
title gives no indication.
26
THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
4. The most important step in life is the
choice of a profession, yet chance determines
the point. It is custom which makes masons,
soldiers and tilers. "Such a one," say some
persons, "is an excellent tiler": or if the
conversation turns on military affairs, some
will say, " What arrant fools are soldiers ! "
while others exclaim, "Nothing is so glorious
as war ! the rest of mankind are simpletons."
But so it is ; we hear, from our childhood,
certain professions applauded, and others
depreciated, and make our choice accordingly ;
for men naturally love excellence, and hate
its opposite. The words affect us, but we err
in their application ; and so great is the force
of custom, that whole districts are full of
masons, and others of soldiers. Certainly,
nature is not so uniform. It is therefore the
. effect of custom, which forces nature along
with it ; but sometimes, nature prevails, and
keeps man faithful to his instinct, in spite of
all custom, good or bad.
5. We never confine ourselves to time
present. We anticipate the future, as too
27
THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
slow, and as if we could hasten it ; we recall
the past, to stop it, as if it were too quick.
We are so foolish, as to wander into time
which is not our own, and never think of the
only portion that belongs to us; and we are
so fanciful, that we dwell on that which is not,
and suffer the existing time to escape without
reflection ; for it is generally the present that \
gives us pain ; we put it out of sight, because
it distresses us, but if it be agreeable, we regret
to see it escape ; we endeavour to hold it fast,
by means of the future, and think of adjusting
what is not within our power, ^QT a period
which we have no assurance will eyer arrive. \
Let any one examine his thoughts, he will
find them always occupied with the past and
\ the future. We scarcely think of the present,
or if we allow it to enter our thoughts, it is
only to borrow light from it, for the regulation
of the future. The present is never our aim.
The past, and the present, are looked upon as
means : the fntiir^ is oiir main objjRgt; we are
never living, but hoping to live ; and whilst we
are always preparing to be happy, it is certain,
we never shall be so, if we aspire to no other
38
THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
happiness than what can be enjoyed in this
life.
6. Our imagination so powerfully magnifies
time, by continual reflections upon it, and so
diminishes eternity to our apprehension for
want of reflection, that we make a nothing of
eternity, and an eternity of nothing ; and so
vigorous and deeply rooted is this propensity,
that the utmost efforts of our reason cannot
extirpate it.
7. Cromwell was on the point of overturning
all Christendom ; the royal family would have
been ruined, and his own permanently estab
lished, if a small piece of gravel had not
lodged in his ureter. Rome herself, was ready
to tremble before him, but this small grain, of
no consequence elsewhere, stopping in this
particular part, he dies, his family are reduced,
and the king is restored.
8. We see scarcely any thing that goes by
the name of justice or injustice, which does
not change its quality, by a change of climate.
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THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
Three or four degrees of latitude reverse the
whole system of jurisprudence ; a meridian
decides truth ; and a few years determine
possession. Fundamental laws change ; right
has its epochs. What exquisite justice, defined
by a river or a mountain ! Truth on one side
of the Pyrenees is error on the other side !
9. Robbery, incest, the murder of children
and parents, have all been ranked among
virtuous actions. Can anything be more
ridiculous, than that a man has a right to kill
me, because he lives on the other side of the
water, and because his prince has a quarrel
with mine, though I have none with him ?
No doubt, there are natural laws ; but our
beautiful reason, itself corrupted, has corrupted
everything else, Nihil amplius nostri est ; quod
nostrum dicimus, artis est; ex senatus con-
sultis et plebiscitis crimina exercentur; ut
olim vitiis, sic nunc legibus laboramus — " There
is nothing we can now call our own, for what
we call so is the effect of art ; crimes are made
by the decrees of the senate, or by the votes
of the people ; and as heretofore we were
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burdened by vices, so now are we oppressed
by laws."
In consequence of this confusion, one man
says that the essence of justice is the authority
of the lawgiver ; another affirms that it consists
in the advantage of the sovereign; a third
asserts that present custom is the surest rule ;
that following the guidance of reason alone,
nothing is just in itself, every thing changes
with the times : custom determines equity for
the sole reason that it is so received — this is
the mysterious basis of its authority. Who
ever traces it to its principles, annihilates it ;
nothing is so defective as the very laws which
correct defects : he who obeys them, because
they are just, obeys an imaginary justice, but
not the essential principle of law : it is complete
in itself, it is law and nothing more ; whoever
sets himself to examine its main spring, will
find it to be so feeble and slight, that if he has
not been accustomed to observe the eccen
tricities of the human imagination, he will
wonder that a single age could obtain for it
such homage and veneration.
The art of overturning states, consists in
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shaking established customs, by examining
their foundation, and thus pointing out their
want of authority and justice. We must revert,
men say, to the primitive and fundamental
laws of the state, which illegal usages have
kept in abeyance : this is a dangerous game,
which will end in universal confusion ; nothing
can be accurately weighed in such a balance :
— meanwhile the people readily lend their ears
to such assertions, and as soon as they receive
them, their yoke falls off: while the higher
ranks make use of this language to their ruin,
and to that of the curious examiners into
received customs. But, by an opposite error,
men sometimes believe that they have a right
to do every thing which is not without example.
For this reason, the wisest of legislators has
said, that men must sometimes be imposed
upon for their good ; and another able
politician — " Cum veritatem qua liberetur
ignoret, expedit quod fallatur" — "When men
know not the truth by which they should be
freed, it is of use to deceive them." They
must not perceive the reality of the usurpation,
it must be regarded as of unquestionable and
32
THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
eternal authority, and its beginning must be
concealed, if we do not wish very soon to see
its end.
10. The greatest philosopher in the world,
passing over a precipice, upon a plank a little
broader than would be absolutely necessary
for walking, though convinced by reason of
his safety, would be overpowered by his
imagination. Many a one could not even
think of being in such a situation, without
sweating, and turning pale. I need not mention
all the effects. Every one knows the sight of
a cat or a rat, or the crushing of a cinder, will
put some persons out of their wits.
11. You are ready to say that this magistrate, \f
whose venerable age commands universal re
spect, must needs govern himself by a pure
and exalted reason, and will judge of things by
their real nature, without being affected by
those trivial circumstances which strike the
imagination of feeble minds. Well, observe
him as he enters a court of justice, and pre
pares to hear the causes with all the gravity
E 33
THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
befitting his high office. At this instant, let
an advocate make his appearance, on whom
nature has unfortunately bestowed a harsh
voice, and an odd set of features ; or suppose
he is badly shaved, or by some accident has
been splashed with dirt ; I will wager that the
magistrate loses his gravity.
12. The mind of the greatest man in the
world is not so independent of circumstances
as to prevent his being disturbed by the most
insignificant noise. The report of a cannon is
not requisite to break the chain of his thoughts ;
the creaking of a weather-cock, or of a pulley,
will suffice. Why should you be surprised that
he cannot reason well just now ? How, let me
ask, is he to put his thoughts together, as long
as that fly is buzzing about his ears ? If you
wish him to find out the truth, pray drive away
the insect that holds his reason in check, and
disturbs that powerful understanding which
governs cities and kingdoms.
13. Thje__mlMsj}^^
of belief; not that it directly produces
34
THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
belief; Jbut things appear true or false, accord-
ir\g to the view_we take ofjtbem. Now, the
will, pleased with one view rather than another,
divertsthe understanding from dwelling on the
qualities of a disagreeable object ; and the con
sequence is, that the understanding, going
along with the will, fixes its attention on the
aspect preferred by the latter, and, judging by
what it sees, jjts belief is insensibly determined
by the inclination of the will.
i
14. Diseases are another source of error ; v f
they impair the judgment. And while violent
disorders produce sensible changes, I cannot
hesitate to believe that slighter ailments pro-
portionably affect us.
Self-interest is also a wonderful instrument
for putting out our eyes without pain. Justice
varies according to our sympathies or anti
pathies. Only pay a handsome sum to your
counsel, when he takes the brief; and how
much niore_£^rcibly wilLhe be struck with the (
justice of youi_£ause ! And yet I have known '
some, who, by another perversion of the mind,
in order to avoid being affected by motives of
35
THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
self-interest, have acted the most unjust part,
from a contrary bias. A sure method of losing
a cause, with such persons, would be to get it v
recommended to them by their nearest rela
tions.
15. Justice and truth are two points so
extremely delicate, that our blunt instrument
cannot touch them ; or, if they do, they cover
the point, and rest more upon what is false,
than upon what is true.
16. The imagination often magnifies the
smallest objects by a fanciful mode of estima
tion, till they fill our whole souls ; and, by a
rash hardihood, contracts the greatest objects
to our own dimensions.
17. Not merely old impressions are capable
of amusing us : the charms of novelty have the
same power. And these are the two sources
of all disputes ; for men upbraid one another,
either with following the false impressions of
infancy, or with inconsiderately running after
novelties.
36
•
THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
Who can preserve the first medium ? Let
him come forward, and prove it. There is no \J
principle, however natural, and though it has
existed from infancy, which men will not assert
to be a false impression, either of education or
the senses. Because, say some, you have be
lieved from your cradle that a vessel is empty
when you see nothing in it, you hold the
possibility of a vacuum : it is a mere illusion
of your senses strengthened by habit, which
science must dispel. Others, on the contrary,
say you have been taught in the schools that
there is no such thing as a vacuum ; and thus
your common sense has been perverted, or it
would have clearly comprehended the truth :
you must correct this erroneous impression, by
returning to the primary dictates of nature.
Which, we are ready to ask, has deceived us
— our senses, or education ?
18. All the pursuits of men have one object—
the acquisition of property : and the title by
which they possess it is, in its origin, nothing
but the fancy of those who make the laws.
They have no power to insure its possession ;
37
\
THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
a thousand accidents may snatch it from them.
It is the same with science ; disease deprives
us of it.
^ 19. What, then, are our natural principles, ,
but principles founded on habit ? In children, \j
they are what have been received from their
parents, as dogs are trained to the chase. A
different habit, as experience proves, will give
other natural principles; and if there are
principles that cannot be effaced by habit,
there are also habits not to be effaced by
nature. This depends on the disposition.
Parents are afraid lest the natural affection
of their children should be lost : what, then, is
this nature which is so liable to be effaced ?
Habit is a second nature which destroys the
first. Why is not habit natural ? I strongly
suspect that this nature itself is but a primary
habit, as habit is a second nature.
20. If we should dream every night the same
thing, it would, perhaps, affect us as much as
the objects we see every day : and if a mechanic
were invariably to dream for twelve hours,
38
THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
every night, that he was a king, I believe he
would be almost as happy as a king who should
dream twelve hours, every night, that he was
a mechanic. Were we to dream every night
that we were pursued by enemies, or haunted
by frightful spectres ; or that we passed all our
time in various occupations — in travelling for
instance ; we should suffer almost as much as
if the whole were true ; and we should dread
going to sleep as much as we should dread to
awake, if we apprehended meeting with such
misfortunes in actual life. In fact, such
dreams would produce almost the same evils
as the reality. But because our dreams are all
different, and varied, what we see in them
affects us much less than what we see when
awake, owing to the continuity of the latter,
though that is not so constant and equable as
never to change : but it does so less abruptly,
except in some remarkable cases, as when
travelling, and then we say, "Methinks I am
dreaming " ; for life is a dream, a little more
regular than other dreams.
21. We suppose that all men conceive and
39
THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
feel alike respecting objects ; but this is a very
gratuitous supposition, for we have no proof of
it. I observe, indeed, that men use the same
words, on similar occasions ; that, for example,
whenever two men see snow, they both express
its appearance by the same word, and call
it white ; and from the conformity in the ap
plication of terms, a strong presumption arises
of a conformity in ideas ; this, however, is not
absolutely demonstrative, though the proba
bility is much in favour of the affirmative.
22. When we see an effect happen always in
the same manner, we infer that it takes place
by a natural necessity ; as, for instance, that
the sun will rise to-morrow; but nature often
deceives us, and will not submit to its own
rules.
23. Many things really certain, are contra
dicted; many falsehoods pass without contra
diction ; contradiction is not a mark of false
hood, nor the absence of it a mark of truth.
24. Reflective men will perceive, that as
40
THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
nature bears the impress of its Maker en
graven 011 all things, they partake of a twofold
infinity. And thus we see that our investiga
tions in all the sciences may be carried on to
an unlimited extent. Who can doubt that
Geometry, for example, contains an infinite
number of propositions not yet discovered ?
And these propositions must be as unlimited
in the multitude and refinement of their prin
ciples ; for evidently those which have been
laid down as ultimate do not depend on them
selves, but are supported by others, and these
again by others in endless succession.
We see, at the first glance, that Arithmetic
alone furnishes principles without number :
and so does every other science.
But if an infinity in littleness is far less an
object of sense, philosophers have made still
greater pretensions of having apprehended it :
this is the rock on which they have all split.
It serves to explain the origin of those titles
now so much in vogue, such as " Principles of
Things," or " Principles of Philosophy," and
others of the same sort; as arrogant in fact,
though not in appearance, as that the absurdity
F 41
THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
of which every one instantly feels, " De omni
scibili."
Let us not, then, expect to meet with as
surance and certainty. Our reason is always
deceived by the fluctuating appearances of
things ; nothing can fix the finite between
the two infinities, which enclose, but never
touch it. If this fact were clearly understood,
I think we should keep ourselves at rest, each
in the place where nature places him. Since
the middle, which is always distant from the
extremes, is our lot, of what avail is it, that
man can gain a scantling of additional know
ledge ? He rises perhaps a little higher ; but
he will be always infinitely far from the
extremes. And is not the duration of the
longest life infinitely short of eternity ?
Compared with these infinities, all finites
are equal, and I do not see why the imagina
tion should fix upon one rather than another.
The very comparison of ourselves with what is
infinite, gives us pain.
25. The sciences have two extremes which
touch one another; the first is that simple
42
THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
native ignorance in which all men are found
at their birth ; the other is that to which great
minds attain, who having traversed every part
of human knowledge, discover that they know
nothing, and find themselves placed in that
very ignorance from which they set out. But
this is a wise ignorance which knows itself.
Persons between these two classes who have
escaped from their native ignorance, but have
not yet reached the other, possess some
tincture of satisfactory knowledge, and form
the class of men of talent. They disturb the
world, and judge worse of everything than
others. The common people, and men of
talent, compose, in general, the busy actors of
the scene ; the rest despise the world, and are
despised by it.
26. We fancy ourselves naturally better able
to reach the centre of things, than to embrace
their circumference. The visible extent of the
universe is evidently beyond our grasp, but as
we far exceed little things, we fancy that they
are more easily acquired. And yet it does not
require less capacity to descend to nothing,
43
THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
than to comprehend all things ; there must be
an infinity in both : and it seems to me, that
he who could comprehend the minutest prin
ciples of things, might also attain the know
ledge of infinity. One depends on the other,
and the one leads to the other. The extremes
touch and reunite in consequence of stretch
ing out so far, and meet in God, and in God
alone.
If man would begin with the study of him
self, he would see how impossible it is to find
any objects totally unconnected with himself.
How can a part, and such he is, comprehend
the whole ? Perhaps he aspires to know only
those parts of nature to which he bears some
proportion. But the parts of the universe are
so related and linked together, that, I am
persuaded, it is impossible to know one, with
out knowing another, and in short, without
knowing all. Man, for example, is related to
everything he knows. He requires space to
contain him, time to exist in, motion in order
to live, the elements to compose his frame,
heat and food to nourish him, and air for
respiration. He sees the light, he feels bodies ;
44
THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
in fact, everything is, in some way or other,
connected with him.
Therefore, to know man, we must know why
air is necessary to his existence, and to know
what air is, we must know why it bears a
relation to the life of man.
Flame cannot exist without air; therefore,
to know the one we must know the other.
Thus, all things being naturally effects and
causes, ends and instruments, directly or
indirectly, and held together by a natural
though imperceptible tie, which unites objects
the most dissimilar arid most distant, I con
sider it to be as impossible to know the parts
without knowing the whole, as to know the
whole without knowing the parts in detail.
And what perhaps renders us totally incap
able of knowing all things is, that while other
objects are essentially simple, we are composed
of two heterogeneous natures, soul and body ;
for it is impossible that the part of us which
reasons should be anything but spiritual : and
to presume that we are simply corporeal would
only exclude us more completely from the
knowledge of things, since nothing is so iricon-
45
THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
ceivable as the assertion, that matter can
know itself.
Tt is this combination of body and spirit
which has occasioned a confusion of ideas
among almost all philosophers : they have
attributed to body what belongs only to spirit,
and to spirit what is true only of body ; for
they boldly assert that bodies tend downward
—that they seek a centre — that they avoid
destruction — that they abhor a vacuum — that
they have their inclinations, their sympathies,
their antipathies, which are all things that are
peculiar to spirit. And, in speaking of Spirit,
they consider it as occupying space, and have
attributed to it motion from one place to
another, which are things that belong only to
body.
Instead of imbibing the ideas of things as
they are, we tinge with the qualities of our
compound being all the simple objects we
contemplate.
Who would not believe, from observing that
we compound every thing of body and spirit,
that such a union was perfectly compre
hensible ? And yet there is nothing we
46
THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
comprehend so little. Man is to himself the
most marvellous object in nature, for he cannot
conceive what body is, still less what spirit is,
and least of all how body can be united with
spirit.
This is the very summit of his difficulties,
and yet this is his own being — Modus quo
corporibus adhaeret spiritus comprehend! ab
hominibus non potest, et hoc tamen homo est.
27. Man^ therefore,, is. a subject full of errors
which are incorrigible without grace. Nothing
shows him the trutEy £very thing deludes him.
Reason and the senses, the two principles of
truth, besides that they are not always sincere
in their search, reciprocally delude each other.
The senses delude the reason by false appear
ances ; and the trickery they practise is passed
on themselves in return. Reason takes its
revenge. The passions of the soul disturb
the senses and make them receive false im
pressions. By turns they deceive and are
deceived.
47
ON THE UNHAPPINESS OF MAN
NOTHING is better adapted to give us an
insight into the misery of mankind, than to
consider the true cause of the incessant agita
tion in which they pass their lives.
The soul is sent into the body to make there
a short sojourn. It knows that this is but the
introduction to an endless journey, and that
th,e only period allowed for preparation, is the
brief duration of the present life, of which the
greater part is yielded to the demands of our
natural wrants, leaving a very small portion at
its own disposal. And then this little remnant
so grievously encumbers and perplexes it, that
its chief study is to devise expedients for getting
rid of that also.
To live with itself, and to think of itself, is
insupportably painful. Therefore all its care is
to forget itself, and to cause this time, so short
48
THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
and so precious, to glide away without exciting
reflection, by attending to things which keep
its own condition out of sight.
This is the origin of all the busy pursuits of
mankind, and of every thing called diversion
or pastime, in which men's real aim is, so to
beguile time away, as not to be reminded of
it, or rather of themselves ; and by this oblivion
of life, to escape the bitterness of soul, the
internal disgust, which it would inevitably cost
them, to employ that time in self-consideration.
The soul finds nothing within to give it
content ; it sees nothing there which it can
thinl^of^without pgjn. Thus it is forced to go
out ofiteeif, seeking by an attention to external
objects, to lose the recollection of its real state.
Its satisfaction depends on this forgetfulness,
and to render it miserable, there needs no
more than to compel it to see itself, and to be
alone with itself.
Men are trained from infancy to be anxious
about their honour and their property, and
even about the property and honour of their
relations and friends. We impose upon them
the study of languages, of the sciences, of manual
G 49
THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
exercises, and of the arts. We intrust them
with various concerns, and assure them that
they can never expect to be happy, if they do
not manage by care and industry, to establish
their fortune and honour, and even the fortune
and honour of their friends ; and that if they
fail in any one of these objects, they must be
miserable. Thus, we force them into tasks
and engagements, which harass them from
morning till night. A strange expedient all
this, say you, for making people happy ! What
could be better devised to make them unhappy ?
Do you ask what ? Why, just this ; relieve
them of all these cares : for then they would
see themselves, they would think of themselves,
and this would be an intolerable grievance.
It is seen, accordingly, that if they have any
relaxation from their toils, the same spirit
prompts them to consume the time in some
diversion that will engross their attention and
save them from themselves.
For this reason, when I have set myself to
consider the various things that agitate man
kind, the dangers and vexations to which they
expose themselves at courts or in camps, in
50
THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
prosecution of their ambitious projects, which
are the origin of so many quarrels, such violent
passions, and perilous and fatal enterprises, I
have often said, that all the miseries of men
arise from not knowing how to be at ease in
their closets. A man who has enough to live
upon, could he endure his own thoughts, would
never spend his life in travel or military ad
ventures ; and certainly if a livelihood were his
object, such hazardous undertakings would be
far from being requisite.
On examining the subject closely, I can trace
this aversion in men, to repose and self-
converse, to a very adequate cause : it is no
other than the natural unhappiness of our
frail and mortal condition, which is so wretched,
that nothing can console us, when we are not
prevented from thinking upon it, and from
seeing ourselves.
Let it be remembered, however, that I have
been describing the state of those persons only,
who look into their own hearts, without having
felt the power of religion. For amongst other
astonishing facts of the Christian religion, this
is one, that it reconciles man to himself in
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THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
reconciling him to God; it renders the sight
of himself supportable ; and, under its in
fluence, many find more pleasure in solitude
and repose, than in all the various scenes arid
employments of active life. And it is not by
confinin^_man_ within himself, that all these
wonderful effects are produced ; they are
brought about, by leading him to God, and
supporting him under the sense of his miseries,
by the hope of another life in which he will be
entirely delivered from them. As for those
who are actuated by no higher motives than
may be found in themselves, and in human
nature, it is impossible that they should be
placed in a state of external repose, favourable
to self-consideration and self-inspection, with
out being instantly attacked by chagrin and
melancholy. The man who loves only himself,
dislikes nothing so much as solitude. He
pursues no object but for his own gratification,
and shuns nothing on earth so carefully as him
self ; for on looking within, he sees that he is
not what he would fain be ; he discovers a crowd
of incurable miseries, and a vacancy of real
and substantial good which he cannot fill up.
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THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
Imagine any situation whatever, containing
all the good things and means of pleasure,
which may be supposed capable of satisfying
the heart of man ; but let an individual be
placed there, without occupation or amuse
ment, and left to reflect upon himself; his
spirits will droop under this languid felicity, he
will inevitably fall into dismal forebodings, and
if his attention is not turned to something out
of himself, he will necessarily be unhappy.
But has not the possessor of royalty, grandeur, v
sufficient to make him happy, without carrying w
his views beyond himself? Must he, too, be
diverted by other objects, like an ordinary
mortal ? One is aware that in common cases,
the way to render a man happy, is to engage
him with an object that will make him forget
his private troubles ; the ambition, for instance,
of being a first-rate dancer. But will it be just
the same with a king ? will he be rendered
more happy by these frivolous amusements,
than by the contemplation of his own grandeur ?
Can any object more gratifying be presented
to his mind ? And will it not mar his pleasure
if his thoughts are turned to regulating his
53
THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
steps by the cadences of a tune, or to watch
the movements of a billiard ball, instead of
enjoying at his ease the enchanting spectacle
of the glory that surrounds him ? Only let the
experiment be tried — let a king be left alone,
without any object of sensual gratification, or
of mental solicitude, without company, at full
liberty for solitary reflection, and we shall
perceive that a king who sees himself is a
man full of miseries, affected by them as
sensibly as any other human being.
All this, therefore, is carefully provided
against; there are never wanting a number
of people, about the persons of princes, who
take care that diversion shall succeed to
business, and who are on the watch, to furnish
pleasures and amusements for every leisure
moment, that a void may never be felt : in
other words, princes are surrounded by persons
who take infinite pains that a king shall never
be alone, and in a state for self-reflection, aware
that notwithstanding his kingship, if he thinks
of that, and of nothing else, he must be
miserable.
Thus the chief thing that sustains men in
54
THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
elevated stations, which, on other accounts,
are so painful, is, that they are continually
diverted from thinking upon them. Only con
sider; to be a chief justice, or prime minister,
what is it, but to be harassed on all sides with
applications that leave no interval for self-
reflection ? And when a discarded favourite
retires to his country seat, though still in
possession of an ample fortune, and with
domestics ready to obey every call, he is
never happy, because no longer prevented
from thinking on himself.
We may account, in the same way, for the
pleasure so many persons take in gaming,
hunting, and other diversions, to the exclusion
of a thought about any thing else. They do
not engage in these pursuits, for the sake of
being just so much the happier by what they
may gain, or because they imagine their real
well being depends on the money they win, or
the game taken in the chase, which they would
think scarce worth accepting as a present.
No; the tranquil and undisturbed use of
things, which would leave time to reflect on
their unhappy state, is not what they seek,
55
THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
but the constant agitation that would render
reflection impossible. Hence it is that men
are so fond of the noise and tumult of the
world, that imprisonment is so dreadful a
punishment, and that so very few are able to
endure solitude.
This is the utmost that men have been able
to discover, to make themselves happy. As
for those who amuse themselves with exposing
the vanity and meanness of the common diver
sions of mankind, they have indeed detected
one source of human misery ; and a great one
it is — the disposition to take pleasure in objects
so mean and despicable ; but they cannot know
the root of the evil from which these miseries
necessarily spring, as long as they are not cured
of that internal and native perversion, which
consists in being unable to endure the sight of
themselves. To purchase a hare at market
will not secure them from this spectacle, but
the chase of the poor animal answers the
purpose admirably. So that when plainly told,
that what they pursue so ardently cannot
satisfy them ; that, in short, nothing is more
mean and silly, they would allow what we say
5G
THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
to be true, if they saw things in the proper
light ; but, at the same time, would allege that
they merely seek for some violent and tumul
tuary occupation to avert the sight of them
selves, and that it is with this design they keep
in view an object sufficiently attractive to occupy
their entire regard. But their self-ignorance
will not permit them to make even this apology.
— A man of rank sincerely believes that there , /
is something great and noble in the chase ; he
will tell you that it is a royal sport ; we find that
men of all classes are under a similar illusion.
They imagine that there is something really
and substantially good in the objects they
pursue. They feel persuaded, that could they
obtain such or such an office, they should then
enjoy repose, not being aware, all the while,
that their desires are insatiable. They believe
that they are sincerely seeking for repose, when,
in fact, they are seeking only for agitation.
Mankind have a secret instinct, prompting
them to find amusement or occupation in
external objects, which springs from a sense
of their continual misery. And they have
another secret instinct, a vestige of their
u 57
THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
original greatness, which assures them that
happiness consists really in repose. From the
operation of these two contrary instincts, a
confused scheme is formed, and lies hid at
the bottom of their hearts, which leads them to
seek repo&e by means of action, and to imagine
that the satisfaction they want will be obtained,
if by surmounting certain obstacles immediately
in view, they can open a passage to their
And thus life passes away. Men combat
with a thousand difficulties for the sake of
repose," and" as soon as they have overcome
them_^ aH, ~repMa7l5ecomes intolerable. For
their-thoughts are turned either on existing
evils, or on such as are impending. And when
secure on all sides from danger, their inherent
disquietude, ^ destitute; of objects it might justly
fix upon,~stffl continues to shoot from the heart,
r,"ltnd" overspreads the soul with
" When tineas told Pyrrhus, who proposed
enjoying himself with his friends as soon as
he had conquered great part of the world,
that he would consult his own happiness much
58
THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
more by taking up with the repose already at
his command, without undergoing the hazards
and toils of war in order to obtain it, he advised
him to a line of conduct not less difficult, and
scarcely more reasonable, than the ambitious
project of the young warrior. Both proceeded
on the false assumption that contentment could
arise from a man's self, and from present good,
without its being requisite to fill the void of
the heart with imaginary hopes. Pyrrhus could
not be happy, either before, or after the con
quest of the world, and probably the easy life
recommended by his prime minister would
have given him less satisfaction than even the
many wars and expeditions he was planning.
Thus we must be brought to acknowledge
that the human mind is so unhappily disposed
as to become weary of itself without any foreign
cause, by the very peculiarity of its natural
conditionT"and withal it is so vain and volatile,
that when full of a thousand real causes of
uneasiness, the merest trifle will divert it. To
consider the matter seriously, there is much
moreTreasbn to lament that mankind can be
aimised with things so contemptible and
59
THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
frivolous, than that they suffer so much from
real miseries, and their diversions are infinitely
less rational than their sorrows.
,.
2. What can be the reason that this man,
who not long ago lost his only son, and this
morning was engaged almost to distraction in
a law-suit, now does not give his troubles a
thought ? You need not be astonished ; he
is taken up with watching a stag, which his
hounds have been in full chase after, for six
hours. However great his distress may have
been, in this he finds ample consolation. In
short, prevail upon a man to join in any amuse
ment whatever, and as long as that lasts he
will be happy; but it will be a false and
imaginary happiness, arising not from the
possession of real and solid good, but from a
levity of spirit, that obliterates the recollection
of his real miseries, and fixes his thoughts
upon mean and ridiculous objects, unworthy of
his attention, and still less deserving of his
love. The delight he feels is that of a dis
tempered man in a frenzy; the result, not of
the healthy vigour of his mind, but of its
60
THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
unnatural excitement ; it is the laugh of folly
arid delusion,. And it is indeed very striking
to observe what it is that pleases men in their
sports and diversions. It is true, that by
occupying the mind, they deaden the sense of
its miseries: so far all is real. But they
occupy it only by creating a phantom of the
imagination, as an object of devoted attach
ment.
What object, think you, have those persons
in view, who are playing at tennis with such
intense ardour and activity ? Why, that they
may boast to-morrow among their friends of
having played better than any one else ; this is
the mainspring of their eagerness. And so
others toil in their closets, to gain the
applause of men of science, for resolving an
algebraical problem hitherto undetermined.
And many, not a jot wiser in my opinion,
run the hazard of their lives, that they may
boast of having stormed a town. And lastly,
others shorten their lives, in noting all
these follies, not for the purpose of becoming
better men, but to show that they know the
vanity of them : and these are the greatest
61
THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
fools of all, for they are so knowingly : whilst
we may suppose, respecting the others, that
they would not act as they do, were they
better informed.
3. A man will pass his time, without feeling
it tedious, by playing each day for a small
stake, whom you would make unhappy by
giving him every morning, on condition of his
not gaming, the money he would otherwise
win during the day. Perhaps it will be said
that his object is amusement and not gain.
But let him play for nothing, and he would
feel, not merely no interest, but actual disgust.
Amusement, therefore, is not his only object ;
a calm and dispassionate amusement would be
irksome. He must be animated and put upon
his mettle, by imagining that he should be
happy in winning what he would refuse to
receive, on condition of not playing ; and an
object of passion must be created, that will
excite his desire, his anger, his fears, and his
hopes.
We see, then, that the diversions in which
mankind place their happiness are not only
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THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
contemptible ; they are false and deceitful : in
other words, they present phantoms and illu
sions which could never occupy the mind of
man, if it had not lost the perception of real
good, and a taste for it; and if it were not
filled with meanness, vanity, levity and pride,
and an infinite number of other vices. Diver
sions assuage the sense of our miseries, only
by causing more real and substantial misery, for
more than any thing else, tl^_jpre^ent_self- '*
reflection, and ^tfjfj ft"^ time to elapse
unnoticed. Were it not for them, we should
be weary of ourselves, and this weariness
would lead us to seek for some more effectual
method of relief But diversion deceives and
amuses us, and brings us to the grave by
imperceptible advances.
4. Mankind, vyaablgjx) escape death, trouble
and ignorance, in order to make themselves
happy, have hit upon the plan of never think- /\ (
iug about these things ; the utmost efforts of
their ingenuity can suggest no better consola
tion for such prodigious evils. But it is most
miserable consolation, since it goes not to
63
THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
cure the evil, but merely io conceal it a little
while; and by concealing it, prevents men
from attempting to obtain a thorough cure.
Thus, by a strange inversion in human
nature, that disquietude which is its greatest
sensible evil, proves to be its greatest good,
since nothing can influence it more powerfully
to seek a radical cure ; and that diversion
which it looks upon as its greatest good is,
in fact, its greatest evil, because nothing tends
more to draw it off from seeking a remedy for
its miseries : while both are striking proofs of
the unhappiness and corruption of man, and
of his grandeur too ; for he would not be
disgusted with every thing, nor engage in such/
a multiplicity of pursuits, if he had not an
indistinct conception of the happiness he has
lost ; but unable to find it in himself, he
seeks for it ineffectually in external K things,
without ever being satisfied, because it cannot ,
be obtained from ourselves nor from any '
created beings, but is in God alone.
.
5. Since nature makes us unhappy in every
condition, our desires imagine a happy state,
THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
combining with the state we are in, the
pleasures of a state in which we are not : but
wheirwe~ar^ in possession of these pleasures,
we are not happy, because we have new desires
conformed to our notions of another state.
6. Imagine a number of prisoners all under
sentence of death; if some of them were
executed every day in sight of the others, the j
remainder would behold their own fate in that
of their companions, and look at one another
with anguish and despair, expecting their own
turn to come. This represents the condition
of mankind.
65
ON THE NECESSITY OF STUDYING
RELIGION
THE least that may justly be required of those
who are inclined to hostility against Religion
is, that they should first take care to under
stand what its pretensions really are. Were
it so extravagant as to boast that it gives an
entirely clear and unclouded manifestation of
the Deity, a conclusive argument might be
brought against it, from the incontrovertible
fact that there is actually no such manifesta
tion in the world. But when, on the contrary,
it declares that men are in darkness and
estrangement from God ; that He is concealed
from their knowledge, and that even one of
the titles given Him in Scripture is, a "God
that hideth Himself," and when, in fine, it
affirms and insists equally upon these two
things, namely, that God has fixed competent
66
THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
marks in His Church, that He may be dis
covered by those who sincerely seek Him,
and that, nevertheless, these -marks are so far
concealed, that they can be perceived only by
those who seek Him with all their hearts : when
33
the case is so, I would ask those persons who
do not so much as pretend to exert any serious
diligence, in order to ascertain the truth
respecting religion, how they can think they
are bringing an argument against religion, in
protesting they do not find it true, when the
very fact of their perceiving no evidence serves
to establish one of the two points above men
tioned, and does not affect the other ; and thus,
instead of subverting, confirms the doctrine
of the church.
To give any validity to their opposition, they
must be able to declare, that they have spared
no efforts to discover the truth ; that they
have listened to everything the Church itself
offers for their information, and still without
obtaining satisfaction. When they can assert
all this, they may, with good reason, dispute
one of its pretensions. I hope, however, to
show, that no person of sound understanding
67
THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
can make such an assertion, and even venture
to say, that no one has ever made it. We
know very well how people of this turn proceed.
They will have it, that they have made extra
ordinary efforts to inform themselves, when they
have spent a few hours over the Bible, and
propounded some questions to an ecclesiastic
on the articles of faith. They then assure us,
with infinite satisfaction, as if they had actually
demonstrated the falsehood of religion ; that
they have sought, both among books and men,
for the evidences of its truth, but cannot find
them. Really, I must tell them what I have
often said, that this light-hearted presumption
is insufferable. The question they so easily
dispose of, is not a trifle relating to some
person with whom they have no concern : it
is a question that affects themselves, and their
all. The immortality of the soul concerns us
so profoundly, that it would argue the want
of all right feeling to be indifferent about its
truth. The whole course of our thoughts and
actions must be so different, according as there
is or is not an eternal good to be hoped for,
that it is impossible to act on rational prin-
68
THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
ciples, without being regulated, every moment,
by our belief on this point, and making it our
chief concern.
\l Our main interest and prime duty must be,
to be rightly informed respecting a fact on
which our whole scheme of life depends. And
for this reason, I look upon the difference
as immense between those persons who are
labouring with all their might to know the
truth, and those who, equally destitute of
information, will not trouble themselves with
a thought about it.
I feel nothing but compassion for those who
sincerely lament their state of doubt, look
upon it as the worst of evils, and, sparing no
pains, make it their principal and most serious
business to be freed from it.
But as for those who pass through life with
out thinking of its final termination, and who
merely, because they do not find sufficient
evidence in their own breasts to convince
them, neglect all inquiry, and refuse to ex
amine whether this doctrine is one of those
notions which the credulity of the multitude
keeps afloat, or one of those truths which,
69
THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
though obscure in their own nature, rest,
nevertheless, on the firmest basis : such persons
I regard in a totally different light. Their care
lessness on a subject which concerns them
selves, their eternity, and their all, excites
anger, rather than compassion : it astonishes
and confounds me ; it is absolutely monstrous.
And let them not set this down for the
extravagance of an enthusiastic devotee : it
is a conclusion, I assert, that might be formed
on the principles of self-love and of common
prudence ; it is agreeable to the simplest
dictates of reason, and lies within the reach
of the most moderate capacity.
It requires no extraordinary enlargement of
mindr to Berngensible that~tfaere can be no true
and solid satisfaction in the present state ;
that all our pleasures are but vanity ; that our
grievances are innumerable ; and that, finally,
death, which threatens us every instant, will
consign us, within a few years, or it may be
within a few days, to an eternal state of
happiness or of misery, or to annihilation.
Between us and heaven, hell, or annihilation,
there is nothing but life, the frailest of all
70
THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
things ; and as heaven will certainly not be
the portion of those who doubt whether their
souls are immortal, such persons have nothing
to expect but hell or annihilation.
•/ Nothing is more positively a fact, than that
^j i •/ ^
this is our situation ; and nothing is more
terrible. Let us carry ourselves as high as
we please, behold here the end of whatever
may be deemed the most fortunate worldly
life.
It is in vain that men turn their thoughts
away from the eternity that awaits them, as if
tljgy could annihilate it by not thinking of it.
It is a reality, whether they will have it so or
not : it is continually approaching, and death,
by which they must enter it, will shortly place
them under the dire necessity of being either
eternally annihilated, or eternally unhappy !
How tremendous are the consequences de
pending on this state of uncertainty ! Surely,
to be in such a state is, of itself, a mighty evil ;
and no duty can be more imperative than to
endeavour earnestly to have the question
decided. * So that he who doubts, but seeks
not to have his doubts resolved, is at once the
71
THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
most criminal and most unhappy of mortals.
If, together with this, he is tranquil and satis
fied, if he is vain of his tranquillity, and makes
his state a topic of mirth and self-gratulation,
I have riot words to describe so insane a
creature.
Whence can such sentiments be derived ?
What matter of joy can there be in looking
forward to nothing but remediless woe ? What
aliment for vanity to find one's self involved
in impenetrable darkness ; or what consolation
in expecting, never, in the whole range of our
existence, to meet with a consoler ?
Such repose, in such ignorance, is monstrous. /!
To make those who are passing their lives in
it, sensible of its extravagance and stupidity,
we will exhibit what passes in their own minds,
and confound them, if possible, by a view of
their folly. We may suppose that men's
thoughts take some such course as the follow
ing, when they consent to live in ignorance
of their situation, and reject the means of
obtaining light upon it : —
"I know not who has placed me in this
world, nor what the world is, nor myself. I
72
THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
am fearfully ignorant of all things. I know
not what my body is, nor my senses, nor even
my soul: for this part of me, which thinks
what I am now saying, which reflects on every
thing and on itself, knows not itself any better
than other things. I behold the universe
extending to an awful immensity, and myself
fixed in a corner of it, without knowing why
I was placed in this spot rather than in any
other, or why the little time allotted me to live
is fixed in this point of duration, rather than in
any other in the eternity past or the eternity to
come. I see infinities on all sides, which ingulf
me as an atom, as a shadow which lasts an in
stant, and is seen no more. All I know is, that
I must soon die ; but the very thing that I
understand the least, is this inevitable death.
As. I know not whence I came, so I know
not whither I am going. I only know, that
whenever I leave this world, I shall fall either
into annihilation, or into the hands of an
offended Deity ; and that I am ignorant which
of these two is my eternal destination.
Such is my state ; full of misery, helpless- N,
ness and darkness. And from the whole, my
K -43^
THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
conclusion is, that I may as well go on without
a thought of what will be my lot, and just
follow my inclinations without reflection or
anxiety, though in a course which I am aware
will insure jmy falling into eternal misery,
should there really be such a state. Possibly
I might find something to clear up my doubts,
if I sought for it ; but I am not disposed to
take the trouble of making one effort of
inquiry ; and treating with contempt those
who give themselves any trouble about the
matter, I am resolved to advance without
forethought or inquietude, to jhe great ex-
periment ^f^jftiturijya^^d jvvish to amuse
myself , along thglroadl Jx>^eath, uncertain of !
what wilLJbe my condition to all eternity."
Truly it is to the honour of religion, to have
for its adversaries men so bereft of reason;
their opposition, far from being formidable,
bears testimony to its most distinguishing
truths. For the great object of the Christian
religion is _to establish the corruption of our
nature, and the redemption by Jesus Christ.
Now, such men, if they do not evince the
truth of redemption by the sanctity of their
74
THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
li^j^^^flag^ corruption
of hunmnjiJ^^ so perfectly
the reverse of a right condition of the soul.
Nothing is so important to man as his own
state — nothing so awful as eternity. There
fore, for men to be indifferent to the loss of
their being, or to the hazard of eternal misery,
indicates a most perverted disposition. They
display no such apathy in any other concern.
They keep their apprehensions awake against
even the most trifling harms, and are distressed
when they happen ; and yet the man who, for
days and nights together, will be enraged and
distracted for the loss of a place, or for some
imaginary insult, is the very same man who
he is going to lose everything at death ;
notwithstanding, feels no emotion of
alarm or anxiety This strange insensibility to
concerns _ the most awful, in a heart - so
sensitive to the merest trifles, is a monstrous
phenomenon, an incomprehensible fascination,
a preternatural lethargy.
A man in prison, who knows not whether
the warrant be signed for his execution, and
has only an hour for informing himself, but
75
THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
that hour probably sufficient to procure a
pardon, would act most unnaturally if he
employed this short period, not in taking
measures to escape his doom, but in jollity
and mirth. The persons I have been describ
ing are in a similar situation, with this differ
ence, that the evils which menace them are
far other and weightier than the mere loss of
life, or a punishment that will soon be over.
Yet, having hoodwinked themselves to hide
the precipice from their view, they madly run |
towards it, and laugh at those who warn them *
of their danger.
Thus,, not only the devout earnestness of
those who are seeking God, but also the blind
ness of those who are not seeking Him, and
live in awful unconcern, furnishes proof of
the truth of religion. Surely some strange
catastrophe must have befallen our nature, to
make it possible for men to live in such a
state ; and still more to render them capable
of being vain of it. For supposing them quite
certain that the worst they had to fear after
death was annihilation, would not even that
be a cause for desperation rather than for self-
76
THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
complacency ? Is it not enormous folly, then,
that having no assurance even of that, they
can glory in an uncertainty, that implies the
possibility ofjsomething far more dreadful than
annihilation.
Yet it is a fact that the soul of man is so
perverted, as to be capable of taking some
pleasure in this uncertainty. This irrational
composure in the view of the alternative of
hell or annihilation appears so fine a thing,
that not only do those who have actually
surrendered themselves to this miserable scep
ticism make a boast of it, but even those who
have not, will affect to be unbelievers for the
sake of reputation. For experience shows that
the greater proportion of professed unbelievers
are of this latter class, mere counterfeits of
the character. They have been made to believe
that this riddance of prejudice and superstition
is indispensable to the accomplished man of
the world. This is what they call shaking off
the yoke; and "most of them assume the airs
of an infidel, merely to be in the fashion.
If, however, they have the least remains of
common sense, it will not be difficult to con-
77
THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
vince them that they have taken the wrong
method to increase their reputation. It is not
thus they will gain esteem among even worldly
men of sound judgment : these will tell them
that the only way to secure a good name is
to be upright, faithful, discreet, and ready to
serve one's friends ; because men naturally love
what contributes to their own advantage. JJut
what hope of advantage do we conceive from
hearing it said that a man has thrown off the ,
yoke, that he believes there is no God to in
spect his actions, that he looks on himself as
sole master of his own conduct, and account
able to no other authority ? Does he imagine
that, by all this, he has made sure of our
confiding in him henceforward, so that we
shall have recourse to him, in every exigency,
for advice, succour and consolation ? Does
he imagine we shall be delighted by his
telling us, that he doubts whether our souls
are anything but a little air or vapour; per
haps putting on, at the same time, an air
of pleasantry and superior sagacity? If this
were true, would it be a thing to speak of
with gaiety, and not rather with profound
78
THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
regret, as the most melancholy consideration
in the world ?
If these persons would give the subject a
serious thought, they would perceive that their
conduct is so ill-judged, so contrary to good
sense, so inconsistent with sound principle, and
so little in any way expressive of that noble
ness of spirit of which they desire the credit,
that nothing is more likely to expose them to
general aversion and contempt, and to stamp
their character with imbecility and absurdity.
And, in fact, could we bring them to give an
account of their sentiments, and of the reasons
of their scepticism, their allegations would be
so frivolous and contemptible, as to confirm,
rather than weaken our faith. It was after
some such exposition of their tenets, that a
person once said, shrewdly enough, among a
set of freethinkers, "Talk a little longer at
this rate, and really you will make me a sound
believer." And with very good reason ; for
who would not revolt from opinions by which
he finds he must be linked to such degraded *
companions ?
As for those who are mere hypocrites in un-
79
THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
belief, they suffer the wretchedness of a forced
repression of their genuine feelings, which only
makes them the most absurd of mortals. If
they are really distressed at being so much in
the dark respecting futurity, let them not dis
own it. The avowal of the fact would be no
disgrace. Nothing is so just a cause for
shame, as to be without it where it ought to
be felt. Nothing more plainly shows an ex
treme want of sense, than not to apprehend
what a melancholy thing it is for a man to be
without God in the world : nothing more un
questionably proves a contemptible shallowness
and levity of spirit, than not to wish, at least,
that promises of eternal happiness may be
true. No courage can be so spurious and
besotted, as that which maintains itself against
the Almighty. Let persons who are not at
heart disciples of infidelity leave these im
pieties to those who can indulge them without
affectation. Let them, at least, be honest
men, if they cannot yet be Christians ; and
let them acknowledge that the matter plainly
comes to this, that there are only two classes
of men who deserve to be called rational ;
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THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
namely, those who are serving God with their //
whole heart, because they know Him; and
those who are seeking Him with their whole J !
heart, because they know Him not.
For persons who are seeking after God, who
are'&ensible of their misery, and long to escape
from it, it is right that we should labour to
assist them in obtaining that illumination
which, as yet, they have not.
But as for those who live without knowing
God or seeking Him, so little do they judge
themselves worthy of their own care, that they
hardly deserve any from others ; and it needs
all the charity of the religion they despise, not
to despise them, and leave them to their in
fatuation. But since this religion obliges us
to consider them, while in this life, as capable
of receiving that grace which would enlighten
them even so effectually as, in a short time, to
render them stronger in faith than ourselves ;
and that, on the other hand, it is possible for
us to fall into a blindness like theirs ; it is our
duty to act towards them as it would be desir
able that they should act towards us, supposing
the case reversed : we must conjure them to
L 81
THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
have pity on themselves, and, at least, to make
some efforts whether they may not obtain
illumination. Let them be persuaded to give
to the perusal of this work some of those
hours which would be otherwise uselessly spent.
It is possible they may meet with something
for their advantage ; and, at all events, they
can be no great losers. As for those who
bring with them minds perfectly sincere, and
desirous of knowing the truth, I trust they will
obtain satisfaction, and be convinced of the
truth of our divine religion, by the arguments
here brought together to prove it.
ON THE ADVANTAGES OF
RELIGIOUS BELIEF
A DIALOGUE BETWEEN A SCEPTIC AND
A BELIEVER
S. On the principles of reason, it appears
that if there be a God, he must be totally in
comprehensible ; for, having neither parts nor
limits, he can bear no relation to finite beings.
We are therefore incapable of knowing what
he is, or even whether he exists. And this
being the case, who can undertake to deter
mine the question? Certainly not ourselves,
whose nature, it is evident, has no relation to
that of Deity.
B. I shall not, on this occasion, attempt to
prove the existence of the Deity, the Trinity,
the immortality of the soul, and other truths of
the same class, by arguments purely rational :
not only because it seems impossible (for my
self at least) to deduce proofs from nature
83
THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
sufficient to convince hardened Atheists ; but
also, because this knowledge, without the know
ledge of Jesus Christ, is barren and useless.
Let a man be persuaded that the proportions
of numbers are spiritual, eternal truths, depen
dent on a primary truth in which they subsist,
and which we term God ; yet, after all, he has
not made much progress towards his salvation.
S. It is a strange thing, that no canonical
author has ever made use of philosophical
arguments to prove the existence of the Deity :
they all aim at producing the belief of it, yet
none of them has anywhere said, There is no
vacuum ; therefore, there is a God. They
must have been superior to the ablest writers,
since their times, who have all made use of
such arguments.
B. If it is a mark of weakness to attempt
the demonstration of the existence of the
Deity, from the nature of things, do not re
proach the Scripture, in which, as you allow,
nothing of the kind is to be found : if it is a
mark of wisdom to be aware of the difficulties
attending such a mode of proof, reverence the
inspired writers for possessing that mark.
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THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
S. Unity joined to infinity does not augment
it, any more than a foot added to an infinite
length. The finite is lost in the infinite, and
becomes a simple nonentity. Thus the human
intellect shrinks into nothing before the divine
mind — thus our rectitude vanishes, when com
pared with the rectitude of God. The dispro
portion is not so great between unity and
infinity, as between our rectitude and that of
God.
B. We may know that an infinity exists, and,
at the same time, its nature may be incompre
hensible. Thus, for example, we know it to
be false that numbers are finite, and therefore
infer that they are infinite. But that infinity
itself we do not comprehend. It cannot be
even, it cannot be odd ; for if we add unity, its
nature will not be changed ; yet it is a number,
and every number is either even or odd, every
finite number at least. We may, then, know
assuredly, that there is a God, though we know
riot what he is : and you ought not to con
clude that there is no God, because we cannot
perfectly comprehend his nature. To convince
you of the divine existence, I will not appeal
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THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
to that faith which renders it impossible for us
to doubt it, nor to all those proofs we possess,
which your mind, in its present state, is ill-
fitted to receive. I would argue on principles
admitted by yourself; and shall undertake to
show you, by the mode of your reasoning every
day on things of far inferior moment, in what
manner you ought to reason on this infinitely
important question, and which side you ought
to take in deciding on the truth or falsehood
of the existence of the Deity. You assert,
then, that we are incapable of knowing that
God exists. Now, it is certain that either
there is a God, or there is not ; there is no
other alternative. But which side shall we
take ? Reason, again you assert, can do
nothing towards deciding the point. A chaos
of infinity separates man from God. At this
infinite distance the game is played, whether
it will turn up cross or pile ; which do you
wager? B^-roa^on^QU- cannot be certain of
either ; by reason, you cannot deny either. Do
not blame those who have made a choice, for
that they have acted unwisely, and made a
bad choice, is more than you can tell.
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THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
J
S. I blame them not for choosing either one
side or the other, but for making any choice /v
whatever : he who takes cross, and he who
takes pile, are both wrong : not to wager at
all would be most proper.
& B. Yes, but you must wager : it is not left to
your option to be neutral : not to wager that
there is a God, is to wager that there is no
God. Which then do you choose ? Consider
which will be most for your own interest :
there are two things you may fail to gain,
truth and the supreme good; you have two
things to pledge, your reason and your will,
your knowledge and your happiness : and
your nature has two things to avoid, error
and misery. Do not hesitate then to decide
in the affirmative. Your reason will not be
shocked by choosing one in preference to the
other, since a choice must be made : that is
a settled point. But your happiness : are you
alarmed for that? Weigh the gain and the
loss : by taking the affirmative, if you gain, you
gain all ; if you do not gain, you lose nothing.
Oh ! then, believe if you can, that there is a
God.
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THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
S. This is very forcible : I must believe ; and
yet I hesitate ; shall I not hazard too much ?
B. Consider; if there were two lives to be
gained for one, on an equal chance of gain or
loss, you would certainly not hesitate to wager.
And if ten lives might be gained, would you
not be foolish not to hazard your single life to
gain ten, supposing the chances were equal ?
But here there are an infinity (so to speak)
of infinitely happy lives to be gained, with an
equal chance, as you allow, of gaining and
losing : the stake, too, is an inconsiderable
thing, which cannot be long at your disposal :
to be chary therefore about parting with it
now would be absurd.
Nor is it any real objection to say, that the
gain is uncertain, but the hazard certain ; and
that the infinite distance which exists between
the certainty of what is hazarded, and the
uncertainty of what may be gained, equalises
the finite good of which the risk is certain,
and the infinite good of which the winning is
uncertain. This is not a fair statement of the
case : every gamester risks a certainty to gain
an uncertainty, and yet he risks a finite good,
88
THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
to gain another finite good, without acting
irrationally. It is not true that there is an
infinite distance between the certainty of
what he risks, and the uncertainty of what
he hopes to gain. There is, indeed, an infinite
distance between the certainty of winning, and
the certainty of losing. But the uncertainty
of gaining is in proportion to the certainty
of what is risked, according to the proportion
of the chances of gain and loss : and hence,
if the chances on both sides are equal, the
risks are equal ; the certainty of what we risk,
in such a case, is equal to the uncertainty of
the prize, instead of being infinitely distant
from it. And our assertion acquires infinite
force, when as in the present case, what is
only finite, is hazarded on even chances of
gain and loss, for what is infinite. This is de
monstration : and if men's minds can admit any
truth on rational grounds they must admit this.
S. I feel the force of your reasoning. But
are there no means of being better acquainted
with the final issue of the game ?
B. Yes, there are the Scriptures, and all the
multifarious proofs of our religion.
M 89
THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
S. Those who hope for salvation, you say,
are happy; but have they not as a counter
poise, the fear of hell ?
B. But who has most reason to fear hell ?
he who doubts of its existence, and is certain
of damnation, if it does exist? or he who
firmly believing its existence, enjoys also the
hope of being saved from it ? Supposing a man
under sentence of death had only eight days
to live according to law, he would surely be
totally devoid of understanding not to consider
death as something more than a possibility.
But if our passions did not delude us, eight
days and a hundred years would be the same
thing in an estimate of our whole existence.
And what evil will follow your deciding to
believe ? You will be faithful, honest, humble,
grateful, beneficent, upright and sincere. , It
is true you must relinquish some hurtful
pleasures ; you must renounce the splendours
and amusements of the world: but do
think that you will gain no others ? I assure
you that you will be a gainer, even as to this
life, and that every step you take in this path
will show you, with greater clearness, the
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THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
certainty -.ofjthe gain and the nothingness of
at last you will know, without the
shadow of B a doubt, that you have made the
venture for a certain and an infinite good, and
surrendered a mere nothing to obtain it.
S. Well; but my hands are tied, and my
mouth stopped : you would compel me to
venture, and I am not at liberty to do it ; you
give me no rest, and yet, such is the state of
my mind, that I cannot believe : what then
must I do.?
B. Be convinced, at least, of your inability to
believe, since reason dictates that you should
believe, and yet you cannot. Endeavour to
attain conviction, not by accumulating evidence
of the existence of the Deity, but by diminish
ing the violence of your passions. You wish
to enter into the faith, but you know not the
road ; you wish to be cured of your unbelief,
and you enquire for the remedy : learn, then,
of those who were once such as you are, but
who are now free from doubt. They know the
road you wish to take ; they are cured of the
disease of which you wish to be cured. Copy
the manner in which they set out; imitate
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THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
their external actions, if you cannot as yet
enter into their internal dispositions ; quit
those vain amusements which have so en
chanted you. I would soon quit these pleasures,
say you, if I had faith. And I, on the other
hand, tell you that you would soon have faith,
if you quitted these pleasures. But it is for
you to begin. If I could, I would give you
faith ; but I cannot, and, consequently, cannot
apply a test to the truth of what you say : but
you can very well quit these pleasures, and
prove that what I say is true.
\/7S. These sentiments overpower and delight
me.
/?B. If these sentiments have given you
pleasure, and impressed your mind, be as^
sured that they come from a man who, both
before and after he uttered them, bowed him
self in prayer to that infinite Being to whom
he surrenders his whole soul, and implored
that he would cause you to make a similar
surrender for your own good, and for his
glory ; that thus his Almightiness might adapt
itself to your weakness.
92
v/
MARKS OF THE TRUE RELIGION
1. The true religion must enforce the duty
°f lQve to God. Nothing can be more just
than this, and yet no religion but ours has
enjoined it. The true religion must recognise
the propensity of man to evil, and his inability
to attain virtue by his unassisted efforts. It
must also furnish the remedies for these
maladies, of which prayer will be the principal.
All this our religion has done : no other ever
instructed men to seek from God the power to
love and to imitate Him.
2. A knowledge of human nature is essential
to the true religion ; for the nature of man, his
highest good, true virtue, and true religion, are
so connected, that neither of them can be fully
known apart from the rest : it must also be
acquainted with the grandeur and the degrada-
93
THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
tion of man, and the causes of both. What
religion, besides the Christian, can pretend to
such comprehensive views ?
3. The systems of paganism were well adapted
to the common people, for they consisted wholly
of external rites ; but that very circumstance
rendered them unfit for the reflective and
philosophic.
A religion purely intellectual might suit
cultivated minds, but would be entirely useless
to the generality. The Christian religion alone
is suited to all, being composed of what is
external, and of what is internal. It elevates
the people to what is internal, while it brings
down the loftiest minds to what is external:
and to this two-fold applicability it is indebted
for its perfection; for it is befitting that the
uneducated should rise from the letter to the
spirit, and that the intellectual, by practising
external rites, should submit their spirit to the
letter.
4. We are hateful : reason may convince us
of this. But no religion, besides the Christian,
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THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
has enjoined man to hate himself. No other,
therefore, should be received by those who
know they deserve to be hated. No religion
but the Christian has fully recognised the fact,
that, of all beings on the globe, man is the
most excellent, and, at the same time, the
most miserable. Those systems which have
best apprehended the reality of his excellence,
have looked upon the natural emotions of
shame and guilt as mean and unbecoming;
while others, whose abettors have clearly per
ceived the reality of our degradation, have
treated with scorn those lofty sentiments which
are equally natural to man. No religion, except
ours, has declared that man is born in sin ; no
sect of philosophers has said so : not one,
therefore, has spoken the truth.
5. ^jrod is concealed from man : therefore
every religion which does not assert this fact
is false : and every religion which admits it,
but does not explain its cause, is essentially
defective. Our religion is free from both these
objections. This religion, which consists in
believing that man is fallen from a state of
95
THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
excellence and communion with his Maker,
to a state of sorrow, remorse, and distance
from God ; but that he will at last be restored
by the Messiah, has always existed in the world.
All other things have passed away, but this,
to subserve which they existed, remains. For
God having designed to form for Himself a
holy people, whom He would separate from
all nations, deliver from their enemies, and
bring into a place of safety, declared that He
would do this, and come into the world for
the purpose ; and predicted by His prophets
the time and manner of His coming. Mean
while, to encourage the hopes of His chosen,
through successive ages, He exhibited this event
in types and figures, and never left them with
out assurance of His power and determination
to save them. Soon after the creation, Adam
was made the witness and depository of the
promise of a Saviour to be born of woman.
And though mankind, in the first ages of the
world, could not have forgotten the creation
and the fall, and the promise of a Redeemer,
yet as, at that early period, men had given way
to all kinds of wickedness, holy men were
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THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
raised up from time to time, such as Enoch,
Lantech, and others, who waited patiently for
the Messiah promised in the beginning. Noah
witnessed the depravity of man at its height,
and was saved amidst the universal deluge by
a miracle, which distinctly showed the power
and intention of God to save the world, and to
ensure the birth of the promised seed. That
miraculous intervention sufficed to confirm the
hopes of the faithful ; and while the remem
brance of it was fresh in their minds, God
renewed His promises to Abraham, living in
the midst of idolaters, arid revealed to him the
mystery of the future Messiah.
In the times of Isaac and Jacob, idolatry
was again spread over the earth : but those
holy men lived in faith : and Jacob, while
blessing his children on his death-bed, ex
claimed with devout transport, referring to
the Messiah, " I have waited for thy salvation,
O God ! " Gen. xlix. 18.
- The Egyptians, who were infected with
idolatry and magic, seduced God's chosen
people by their example. But Moses and
a few others believed on Him whom they
N 97
THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
saw not, and adored Him, in expectation of those
eternal blessings that were in reserve for them.
The Greeks and Romans maintained the
worship of false divinities : the poets con
structed various mythologies : the philosophers
were divided into a thousand different sects :
but all the while, there were in Judea chosen
individuals, who predicted the coming of that
Messiah who was unknown to the rest of
mankind.
At last, in the fulness of time, He came :
and since His appearance, amidst so many sects
and schisms, the overthrow of so many states,
and so many total revolutions, that Church,
which adores Him whom it has always adored,
has subsisted without interruption. And what
is surpassingly wonderful and divine, this
Church, which has always continued to exist,
has always been opposed. A thousand times
it has been at the brink of destruction, and
as often God has rescued it by extraordinary
interpositions of His power ; and, what is
equally astonishing, it has maintained itself
without bending and submitting to the will
of tyrants.
THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
6. States would be destroyed if they did not
often accommodate their laws to circumstances :
the Christian Church has never been forced to
this expedient, or voluntarily adopted it. But
these accommodations to the times must be
made, or their use superseded by miracles.
It is not strange that human constitutions
should be preserved by compliances, though,
in that case, they can hardly be said to main
tain themselves; yet, after all, they perish sooner
or later — not one has lasted five hundred years.
That this religion should always have main
tained its ground with perfect inflexibility is
a striking proof of its divine origin.
7. If the truth had no visible marks, the
obscurity would be too great: one admirable
mark is, that it has always been preserved in
a church, and a visible assembly. If, on the
other hand, there were perfect unity of senti
ment in the Church, the evidence would be
too great ; but to ascertain the truth, we have
only to find out what it is that has always
existed in the Church ; for we may be assured
that falsehood is changeable and transitory,
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THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
but truth fixed and perpetual. Thus, for ex
ample, the Messiah has always been an object
of faith. The promise respecting Him, handed
down by Adam, was fresh in the times of Noah
and Moses. Subsequent prophets, who fore
told His coming, prophesied also of other
events, the accomplishment of which, from
time to time, proved at once the divinity of
their mission, and the truth of the promises
respecting the Messiah. They all declared,
that the dispensation under which they lived,
was merely preparatory to that of the Messiah ;
that it would be preserved till He should come,
and then He would establish an everlasting
kingdom : so that either their economy, or
that of the Messiah, of which it was the
earnest, would always subsist. And such has
really been the fact. Jesus Christ made His
appearance under the circumstances predicted.
He Himself wrought miracles, and furnished
His apostles with those extraordinary powers
which they employed in the conversion of the
heathen world ; the prophecies were accom
plished, and His Messiahship was indubitably
demonstrated.
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THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
8. I see many religions in the world, of
opposite principles, and consequently all false
excepting one. Each challenges belief on its
own authority, and denounces punishment
on unbelievers. Yet, I cannot, for all this,
believe them ; for each may use the same
language, each may lay claim to inspiration.
But, on examining the Christian religion, I
find prophecies actually accomplished, miracles
without number so well attested, that no one
can reasonably cumbt their reality : and this is
what I find in no other religion.
9. The only religion which is contrary to our
nature in its present state, which opposes
all our pleasures, and which appears, at first
sight, contrary to common sense, is the only
one which has always existed.
10. If religion be true, its establishment and
glory must be the ultimate object of the whole
course of human affairs : the internal sentiments
of the human mind must be conformable to its
statements respecting our nature ; it must be
the goal and centre to which all things tend :
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THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
so that a knowledge of its principles will suffice
to explain the nature of individual man, and
the whole system of the world in general. It
is on these grounds that infidels have taken
occasion to reproach the Christian religion
(but evidently for want of knowing it better) ;
they have imagined that it consists simply in
the adoration of God, as an infinite, almighty
and eternal Being ; though this is pure deism,
and differs from Christianity almost as much
as atheism, which is diametrically opposed to
it. Hence they infer that our religion is not
true ; for if it were so, they argue, God would
manifest Himself to men by proofs so palpable
as to render unbelief impossible. But let them
draw what conclusions they please against
deism, their reasoning is totally inapplicable to
the Christian system, which declares, that sjnce
t.hejntroduction of sin^ God has not manifested
HimselflxTmankind with the highest possible
evidence, and the essence of which consists in
the mystery of a Redeemer, who, uniting in
Himself the divine and human natures, rescues
man from the bondage of corruption, and, in
His divine person, reconciles them to God.
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THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
Christianity instructs mankind in these two
truths : that there is a God whom it is possible
for them to resemble and enjoy, and that the
corruption of their nature renders them un
worthy of Him. It is equally important for
man to know each of these truths ; since it is
equally dangerous for man to know God,
without knowing his fallen state, or to know
his fallen state, without knowing that Redeemer
who can deliver him from it. The knowledge
of these truths apart produces either the pride
of philosophers who know God, but not their
fallen state ; or the despair of atheists who
know their fallen state without knowing a
Redeemer. But though the necessities of
man require that he should know both these
points, ^itdegends entirely on the mercy of
God that He should inform us respecting
them. This is what Christianity actually per
forms : this, as we just now said, constitutes
its essence. Let any man examine the real
state of things in the world, and see if every
thing does not tend to confirm the truth of
these prime articles of our religion.
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THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
11. If a man is not sensible that he is full
of pride, ambition, irregular desires, weakness,
misery, and unrighteousness, he is totally blind. |l
But if he knows that such is his real state, and
yet has no desire to be delivered from it, in
what terms can we speak of so unreasonable
a being ? What emotion but that of reverence
can we feel for a religion that is so well
acquainted with the disorders of our nature ?
And how can we help devoutly wishing the
truth of a religion that proffers remedies so
complete ?
12. It is impossible to review the whole
assemblage of the proofs of the Christian
religion without feeling their force to a
degree that no reasonable man can resist.
Consider its establishment. Here is a
religion contrary to our nature, which estab
lishes itself in men's minds with so much
mildness as to use no external force, and
yet, with so much energy, that 110 tortures
could silence its martyrs and confessors ; and
all this was accomplished, not only without
the assistance of a single price, but in defiance
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THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
of earthly potentates who all sought to
crush it.
Consider the holiness, the elevation, and
the humility of a real Christian. The pagan
philosophers sometimes raised themselves
above the rest of mankind by a more
regular manner of living, and by sentiments
in some measure conformable to Christianity.
But they never esteemed as a virtue what
Christians term humility, indeed it would
have been incompatible with other disposi
tions which they considered as virtuous. The
Christian religion is the only one which has
known how to combine sentiments that were
apparently incongruous, and has taught man
kind that so far from humility being inconsistent
with the practice of other virtues, all other
virtues, if this be wanting, are only blemishes
and vices.
Consider the numberless extraordinary facts
recorded in holy writ, the superhuman grandeur
and sublimity of its contents, the admirable
simplicity of the style -- without affectation,
without any laboured embellishments, and bear
ing the most unequivocal impress of truth,
O 105
THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
Consider particularly the character of Jesus
Christ. Whatever may be our sentiments in
other respects, it is impossible not to acknow
ledge the astonishing greatness and elevation
of His soul : of this, His very childhood gave in
dications, when He conversed with the doctors
in the temple : yet, instead of cultivating His
talents by study and the society of men of
learning, He passed thirty years of his life
in retirement from the world, engaged in a
mechanical employment ; and, during the three
years of His ministry, chose for His associates,
and delegated as His apostles, men without
science, learning or reputation, and exposed
Himself to the enmity of men who were deemed
the wisest and most learned of their time.
Strange conduct this in a man who projected
the establishment of a new religion.
Consider attentively the apostles of Jesus
Christ ; uneducated, unlettered men, yet who,
all at once, Jound themselves possessed of
wisdom sufficient to confound the ablest phil-
^_,^mf^r
osophers and endued with courage to resist
all the kings and tyrants who opposed the
establishment of the religion they promulged.
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THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
Consider the astonishing succession of
prophets during a period of two thousand_
years, who all predicted in Various ways the
minutest circumstances of the life, death, and
resurrection of Jesus Christ, the mission of
the apostles, the spread of the Gospel, the
conversion of the Gentiles, and many other
particulars relating to the establishment of
Christianity, and the abolition of the Jewish
economy.
Consider the wonderful accomplishment of
the prophecies in Jesus Christ, to whom they
apply with such exactness, that nothing but
wilful blindness can prevent the perception
IKat He is the person they were designed to
predict.
Consider the state of the Jewish people,
before and after the coming of Jesus Christ ;
their flourishing state before the coming of
the Saviour, and their miserable condition
since their rejection of Him : for, to this day,
they are without any symbol of their religion,
without a temple, without sacrifices, scattered
over all lands, a reproach and a byword among
all nations.
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THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
Consider the perpetuity of the Christian re
ligion, which has subsisted since the beginning
of the world, eilher among the saints of the
Old Testament, who lived in expectation of
the coming of Christ, or among those who
have received Him and believed on Him in
after times : no other religion has possessed
that perpetuity, which is so distinguishing a
mark of truth.
Lastly, consider the holiness of this religion^
the light its doctrines shed upon the con
trarieties of our nature, and those illustrious
and supernatural marks of its divinity, which
strike us wherever we turn our eyes.
After considering all these things, let any
man judge if it be possible to doubt whether
the Christian religion is the only true one, or
if there be any other which can at all enter
into competition with its claims.
108
THE TRUTH OF THE CHRISTIAN
RELIGION PROVED BY THE CON
TRARIETIES IN MAN, AND BY
ORIGINAL SIN
THE traces of (original greatness, and the
symptoms of present debasement in our
nature, are so apparent, that it is impossible
for them to be passed over in the true system
of religion, since such a system must be per
fectly acquainted with the nature of the beings
for whom it is intended : it must know all
that is great, and all that is debased in that
nature, and the cause of both : we therefore
expect it to assert, that there is in man a
powerful principle of greatness, and an equally
powerful principle of debasement. It must
also account for these astonishing contrarieties
in our nature. And if there is a Being who
is the originator and the final end of all things,
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THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
the true religion must enforce the obligation
of loving and adoring Him alone.
Yet, as we find ourselves incapable of adoring
a being we do not know, and of loving any
but ourselves, it must, while it enforces our
obligations, also declare our incapacity to
fulfil them, and acquaint us with its proper
remedies.
In order to make us happy, the true religion
must show us that there is a God whom it is
our duty to love : that our true felicity consists
in union with Him, and all our misery in
being separated from Him ; it must apprise
us, that we are enveloped in a darkness which
prevents us from knowing and loving Him,
and that since our inclination leads us away
from God, while our duty is plainly to love
Him supremely, we are full of unrighteousness.
It must explain the reason of our aversion to
God, and to our own real good ; and must
bring within our reach the remedies for this
malady. Let us examine, with this view, all
the religions in the world, and see if any, ex
cepting Christianity, will satisfy our demands.
Will the lessons of the philosophers satisfy
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us, who offer, as the chief good, a good within
ourselves ? Can this be the true good ? Is
it here they have found a remedy for our
disorders ? Will it quell man's presumption
to put him on an equality with Deity ? or
will it cure his irregular propensities to place
his chief good in sensual pleasure, and thus
to reduce him to a level with the brutes ?
" Raise thy eyes to the Deity," said some,
" behold in Him the Being thou art to re
semble, and Who formed thee to adore Him !
It depends on thyself to attain His image :
Philosophy will lead thee to that elevation,
if thou wilt follow her guidance." Others said,
" Turn thy eyes downwards, base worm, to the
brutes, and see for what creatures thou art
the fit companion!"
What then will become of man ? Is he to
be on a level with the Deity, or with brutes ?
Between these extremes how frightful a dis
tance ! Where and what are we ? Is there
no religion that shall cure at once our pride
and our sensuality ? Is there none that shall
teach us our true good and our obligations, and
furnish us with a remedy for the frailty that
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violates them ? Let us listen to the wisdom
of God addressing us in the Christian revela
tion : " In vain, O men ! you seek in yourselves
for the remedy of your miseries. All that
the light of reason can disclose will only
convince you, that, in yourselves, you can find
neither truth nor happiness : philosophers have
promised you satisfaction, but they have never
given it. They know not what constitutes
your real good, nor what is your real state.
How, indeed, could they apply the remedy,
when they were ignorant of the disease ?
Your chief maladies are pride, which draws
you off from God, and the love of sensible
objects, which chains you to the earth ; and
philosophers, in attempting to check the one
have only aggravated the other. Have they
taught you to aspire after the Deity, and to
consider your nature as allied to His ? In so
doing they have only excited your pride.
Those who have seen the vanity of such
attempts have led you into an error equally
fatal, by telling you that your nature resembled
that of brutes, and prompting you to seek for
happiness in the indulgence of those sensual
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propensities which are common to both. Be
assured, it is not by such means that you will
correct the perversities of your nature. Look
not to men either for truth or consolation. —
I am that Being who formed you, and I alone
can teach you what you are. You are not now
in the state in which I formed you. I created
man holy, innocent, and perfect : I filled his
soul with light and intelligence : I manifested
My glory to him : I displayed the wonders of
My power. The eye of man then gazed upon
the majesty of God. No darkness blinded
him ; neither pain nor mortality oppressed
him. But this glorious state was too much
for him ; it excited his presumption. He
wished to make himself his own centre, to
be independent of My aid. He withdrew from
My control, and as he strove to resemble Me
by seeking for happiness in himself, I allowed
the trial. I caused the inferior
creatures once under his subjection, to revolt,
and made them his enemies. And now man
is become like the beasts ; and so far has he
wandered, that scarcely a ray of light reaches
him to remind him of the Author of his being :
p 113
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all his conceptions of Me have been lost or
confounded. The senses, rendered indepen
dent of reason, and often its masters, impel
him to unlawful gratifications. All creatures
are his open foes, or his seducers, and he is
their slave, subdued by force, or allured by
pleasure, that most terrible and imperious of
all dominations."
Such is the actual state of man. A powerful
instinctive feeling of the happiness of his
primitive nature remains, but he is plunged
into a miserable state of blindness and sensu
ality, which is become a second nature.
2. From the principles I have laid down,
you may discover the cause of the contrarieties
which have excited the astonishment of man
kind, and divided them into so many sects.
Observe all those inward promptings after
glory, those indistinct conceptions of greatness,
which the deepest sense of misery cannot
quench or obliterate, and ask yourself whether
they are not the indications of a nobler nature ?
3. Acknowledge then, proud being, what a
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paradox thou art to thyself. Let thy powerless
reason be humbled, let thy feeble nature be
silent. Learn that man infinitely surpasses
the comprehension of man, and be taught by
thy Maker, what thou knowest not — thy true
condition.
If man had never become corrupt, he
would have enjoyed truth and happiness
with certainty; and if man had always been
corrupt, he would have had no idea of truth
or of happiness. But unhappy mortals as we
are (and the more so because there are some
remains of greatness in our condition) we
have the idea of an happiness which we can
never reach ; there glimmers before us the
image of truth, but we grasp falsehood only ;
we are incapable alike of absolute ignorance
and of complete certainty : these are sufficient
indications that we were once in a state of
perfection, from which we are unhappily fallen.
What can this incessant craving, and this
impotence of attainment mean, unless that
there was once a happiness belonging to man,
of which only the faint traces remain, in that
void which he attempts to fill with every thing
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within his reach ? But it is in vain he seeks
from absent objects the relief which things
present cannot give, and which neither of
them can give ; because, in a soul that will
live for ever, there is an infinite void that
nothing can fill, but an infinite unchangeable
being.
t
4. It is very astonishing that the mystery
most remote from our knowledge, that, I
mean, of the transmission of original sin,
should be a thing without which we can
possess no real knowledge of ourselves. Cer
tainly nothing confounds our reason more
than to say, that the sin of the first man
has rendered those persons guilty who are
so far removed as to seem incapable of
sharing it. This transmission seems to us
not only impossible, but most unjust ; for can
anything be more contrary to the rules of
our pitiful justice, than to pass eternal con
demnation on an infant incapable of volition,
for a sin committed six thousand years before
it was born ? Certainly nothing shocks us
more than this doctrine, and yet without this
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most incomprehensible of all mysteries we are
an unintelligible enigma to ourselves. This is
the master-key to the intricacies and per
plexities of human existence. So that, how
ever inconceivable this mystery may be, man,
without it, is still more inconceivable.
Original sin is foolishness in the sight of
men : this we allow, but let not the defect
of reasonableness, in this doctrine, be objected
to it, since it is not pretended that reason can
explain it. But this foolishness is wiser than
all the wisdom of men. " For the foolishness
of God is wiser than men." 1 Cor. i. 25.
Without this, what can be said of man ? His
whole condition depends on this point, which
our feeble vision can scarcely descry. But
how could it be perceived by reason, since it
is a thing above reason ? And reason, far
from discovering, revolts from it, when it is
declared.
5. When these two states of innocence and
corruption have been explained, we instantly
perceive their reality. Indeed, to obtain the
most convincing proofs of their existence, we
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need only watch the movements of our own
minds ; for we shall detect so many contra
dictions, as to make us feel it to be impossible
that they could ever be found in an uncom-
pounded subject.
This twofold tendency in man is so glaring,
that some have thought that we have two souls ;
for one only has seemed utterly incapable of
such great and sudden changes, of falling from
unbounded presumption, into the most grovel
ling debasement.
Thus all those contrarieties which appear to
place men at the greatest distance from all
religion, may be the means of leading them
to the knowledge of the truth.
For myself, I am free to declare, that as
soon as I discovered in the Christian religion
the doctrine that man is fallen and separated
from God, I saw on every side indications of
its truth ; for nature everywhere, both in man
and out of man, gives signs of a Deity departed.
Without divine revelation, what could men
do but either flatter themselves, by indulging
the instinctive feeling that remained of their
former greatness, or lie prostrate under a sense
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of their present weakness ? For want of seeing
the whole truth, they could never attain to
perfect virtue.
Some, looking upon our nature as slightly
injured, and others deeming it irretrievably
ruined, the former have become the victims
of pnde, and the latter of sloth, the two
sources of all vice. Men were forced either
to submit to their degradation, or to escape
from it by pride. Those who perceived the
excellence of human nature, knew not its
corruption ; so that, though they rose above
despondency, they were ruined by presumption.
Others who acknowledged the weakness of
nature, were ignorant of its dignity, and there
fore suppressed the feeling of ambition only
by plunging into despair.
Hence arose the various sects of
Stoics and Epicureans, the Dogmatists and
the Academy. The Christian religion
has cured man of these two vices : not by
employing one to expel the other, according
to the maxims of earthly wisdom, but expelling
both by the simplicity of the Gospel ; for it
x warns the pious, when it raises them to be
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THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
partakers of a divine nature, that in that state
of elevation, they still carry in their bosoms a
principle of corruption,* which renders them,
during life, liable to error, misery, sin, and
death ; and it proclaims to the most impious,
that it is possible for them to partake of the
grace of the Redeemer. Thus cherishing fear
in those whom it justifies, and offering consola
tion to those whom it condemns, it so mingles
hope and fear by means of that capability,
common to all men, of grace and condemnation,
that it humbles infinitely more than reason,
but without producing despair ; and elevates
V infinitely more than the pride of nature, but
& without inspiring presumption ; and having
m evinced itself alone to be free from error and
^\vice, establishes its sole right to instruct and
\ \regenerate mankind.
6. We cannot form a conception either of
the glorious state of Adam before his fall, or
of the nature of his sin, or of the transmission
of it to his posterity. These events took place
in a state altogether different from our own,
and surpass our present capacity; nor would
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THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
a perfect acquaintance with them be of any
service in freeing us from our miseries. All it
concerns us to know, is this, that through
Adam we are miserable, corrupt, and separ
ated from God, but that we are redeemed by
Jesus Christ; and of these facts the world
furnishes the most striking proofs.
7. How strange ! that Christianity should
enjoin man to acknowledge himself worthless,
and even abominable, and at the same time,
to aim at resembling his Maker. Without the
counterpoise which each of these injunctions
forms to the other, his elevation would render
him superlatively proud, or his abasement
would render him dreadfully abject. Misery
tends to despair : greatness inspires presump
tion.
8. The incarnation shows man the greatness
of his misery by the greatness of the remedy.
9. In the Christian religion, we find attri
buted to man, neither a debasement which
renders him incapable of excellence, nor
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THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
a holiness exempt from imperfection. No
doctrine can be more suitable for man than
that which informs him of his twofold capa
bility of receiving and losing grace, on account
of the two extremes into which he is always in
danger of falling — despair and pride.
10. Philosophers never inculcated senti
ments adapted to both these states. They
attempted to inspire sentiments purely of an
elevated order, but these were not suited to
our condition. Or they endeavoured to instil
base and grovelling notions, and these were as
little adapted to human nature as the former.
There must be indeed emotions tending to
humble, but consisting in sorrow for the actual
state of our nature, not in unworthy notions of
its capability. There must also be elevated
emotions, but of an elevation attained by
grace, and not by merit, and not indulged till
emotions of the other kind have been felt.
11. No one is so happy as the true Christian :
no one so rational, so virtuous, so lovely.
With how little pride may a Christian believe
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himself united to God ! with how little abase
ment may he put himself on a level with the
very worms !
Who can refuse to believe and reverence
these celestial communications ? Is it not
clear as noonday that we perceive in ourselves
indestructible marks of excellence ? And is
it riot equally true, that the experience of
every hour tells us, how deplorable is our
present condition ? And does not this chaos
and unnatural confusion proclaim to us, with a
voice too powerful to be resisted, the reality
of the twofold state of man ?
12. That which prevents men from believing
that they are capable of being united to God,
is nothing but a sense of their degradation.
But if they are really sincere, let them
meditate on it as much as I have done, and
they will perceive, that this degradation is so
entire, that we cannot of ourselves determine
whether the divine mercy will restore us or
not. For I would ask, whence does a creature
who acknowledges himself to be so vile,
acquire the right to measure the mercy of
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God, and to limit it according to his fancy?
Man, so far from knowing what God is, does
not even understand his own nature, and yet,
perplexed with his own condition, he ventures
to affirm that God cannot restore him to
communion with Himself! But let me ask,
whether God demands any thing excepting
to love and know Him ? and since man is
naturally capable of love and knowledge, why
should he not believe that God can make
Himself known and beloved ? For man has no
doubt of his own existence, and that he loves
some objects. If, then, even in the darkness
that surrounds him, he can discern various
objects, and find some to excite his love, why,
if God imparts some rays of His glory, should
he not be capable of knowing and loving Him,
according as He shall be pleased to reveal
Himself? The reasonings, therefore, that go
to deny the possibility of this, must be exces
sively presumptuous, although founded 011 an
apparent humility : but our humility is neither
sincere nor rational if it does not induce us to
confess, that unable of ourselves to know our
nature, or our destiny, God alone can inform us.
124
THE SUBMISSION AND THE USE
OF REASON
1. The highest attainment of reason is to
know that there are an infinite number of
things beyond its reach. And it must be
extremely feeble if it does not go so far.
A man ought to know when to doubt, when
to be certain, and when to submit. He who
cannot do this does not understand the real
strength of reason. Men violate these three
principles either by being certain of every thing
as demonstrative, for want of being acquainted
with the nature of demonstration, or by doubt
ing of every thing for want of knowing when
to submit ; or by submitting in every thing, for
want of knowing when they ought to judge.
2. If we submit everything to reason, our
religion will have nothing mysterious or super-
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THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
natural. If we violate the principles of reason,
our religion will be absurd and ridiculous.
Reason, Saint Augustine remarks, would
never submit to revelation, if it were not
convinced that submission, on some occasions
is its duty. It is proper, therefore, that it
should submit, when according to its own
decision it ought to submit ; and that it
should not submit when it decides on proper
grounds that it ought not to submit ; but
it must take great care not to deceive
itself.
3. Piety is quite distinct from superstition :
as soon as piety passes into superstition it is
destroyed. Heretics reproach us with this
superstitious submission. Arid we deserve the
reproach if we require submission in things
which are not fit subjects for submission.
Nothing is so consonant with reason, as a
disavowal of its authority in things which
belong to faith. And, on the other hand,
nothing is so opposed to reason, as 'to reject
an appeal to it, on things which are not the
object of faith. A total rejection of reason, or
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THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
an exclusive deference to it, are two extremes
equally dangerous.
4. Faith says many things on which the
senses are silent ; but nothing which they deny.
It is superior to them, but never contrary.
5. If_I_saw a miracle, say some persons, I
should be converted. They would not talk in
this manner did they know what it is to be
converted. They imagine that for this purpose
it is only necessary to acknowledge that there
is a God, and to offer addresses to Him, not
very different from what the pagans make to
their idols. But true conversion consists in
annihilating one's self before that Eternal
Sovereign whom we have so often provoked,
and Who might justly destroy us at any time ;
in acknowledging that we can do nothing
without Him, and deserve nothing from Him,
but His displeasure ; and finally, in being c,
convinced, that there is aif inveterate opposi-*^
tion /between God and ourselves, and that
without a Mediator communion with Him is
impossible.
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THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
6. Do not be surprised at seeing plain un
lettered men believe without reasoning. God
inspires them with a love of holiness, and a
hatred of themselves. He inclines their hearts
to believe. And unless God incline the heart,
no man will ever believe with real and efficient
faith ; but, when inclined by Him, no man will
disbelieve. David well knew this when he said,
" Incline my heart, O Lord, to thy testimonies."
Psalm cxix. 86.
>
7. The faith of those who believe without
having examined the evidences of religion, is
owing to a holy disposition of their hearts, to
which what they hear of our religion is con
formable. They perceive that they are the
creatures of God ; they wish to love none but
Him, and to hate none but themselves. But
they feel that they want power; that they
cannot draw near to God, and that unless He
draws nigh to them, they can hold no com
munion with Him. They hear it asserted in
our religion, that we should love God alone,
and hate none but ourselves, and that because
we are wholly depraved and separated from
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THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
God, God has become man to unite Himself
to us. There needs nothing more to induce
men to believe, with such a disposition of
heart, and with such a knowledge of their
duty and their inability.
8. Those who are Christians, without the
knowledge of the prophecies and other evi
dences of religion, can judge of its truth as
correctly as those who possess that knowledge,
but by a different medium. They judge by
the heart, as others judge by the under
standing. It is God Himself who inclines
O .* i ^p , ,
them to believe, and therefore they are most
efficaciously persuaded.
f readily allow that one of these Christians
who believe without logical proof, might be
unable to convince a clever jnfidel. But those
who are acquainted with the evidences of
religion will prove, without difficulty, that the
faith of such a man is really inspired by God,
though he himself could not prove it to be so.
129
THE DESIGN OF GOD IN CONCEALING
HIMSELF FROM SOME, AND DIS
COVERING HIMSELF TO OTHERS
1 It is the design of God to redeem man
kind, and to bestow salvation on those who
sincerely seek it. But such is the demerit of
our race, that He may most justly refuse to
some, on account of their hardne^S of heart,
what He grants to others by that mercy which
they cannot claim. Had He been disposed to
overcome the obstinacy of the most hardened,
He might have effected it by Hsuch a marft-
festation of Himself,, as ^rould havfe rendered it
impossible to doubt ofTlis existence. It is
thus He will appear at the consummation of all
things, when, amidst thunders and lightnings,
and the general convulsion of nature, He will
force the blindest to behold Him.
But it is not in this manner that He has/
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THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
been pleased to appear in His advent of Mercy.
Numbers of mankind had rendered themselves
so unworthy of His clemency, that He resolved
to leave them in destitution of a boon they
made light of. Justice did not require that He
should appear with such palpable marks of
Divinity as would convince all men ; and, on
the other hand, it would have been unjust to
come so disguised as not to be recognised by
those who sincerely sought Him. To these,
accordingly, He renders Himself easily dis
cernible, and, in short, as it is His intention to
be visible to those who seek Him with all their
hearts, and concealed from those who are
equally disposed to shun Him, He so regulates
His communications with mankind, that the
signs of them are plain to those who seek Him,
and obscure to those who do not seek Him.
2. There is light enough for those who are
disposed to see, and darkness enough for
those who are disinclined. There is illumi
nation sufficient to inform the elect, and
obscurity sufficient to humble them. There is
obscurity sufficient to prevent the reprobate
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THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
from seeing, and illumination sufficient to con
demn them, and to render them inexcusable.
If the world existed simply for the purpose
of impressing mankind with the existence of
the Deity, His divinity would beam forth, from
all parts of it, with unshaded splendour ; but,
as it subsists by Jesus Christ, and for Jesus
Christ, to instruct men in the two great facts
of the fall and the redemption, these are the
truths of which the proofs are everywhere
apparent. Whatever we behold, marks neither
the total absence nor the unveiled manifesta
tion of Deity, but the presence of a God who
hideth Himself : all things bear this impress.
Were there no appearances of Deity, such a
universal blank would be equivocal, and might
be supposed to indicate as much the total
absence of Deity, as the unworthiness of men
to receive His manifestations. But the occa
sional glimpses and obscure intimations of
His presence take away the ambiguity. A
single manifestation proves His existence, and
that He always exists; and we infer from it,
that there is a God, and that men are unworthy
of communion with Him.
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THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
3. The design of God is rather to rectify
will, than to satisfy the understanding. If
lITere were no obscurity in religion, the under
standing might be benefited, but the will would
be injured. In the absence of obscurity, man
would not be sensible of his fallen state ; arid
were he left in total darkness, he would despair
of a remedy : so that it is not only just, but
advantageous for us, that the Deity should
be partially manifested ; since it is equally
dangerous for man to know God without know
ing his own corruption, and to know his
corruption without knowing God.
4. We may learn from every quarter some
thing respecting our condition ; but let us
guard against mistakes : for it is not true that
God is wholly manifest, nor is He totally con
cealed. But it is invariably true, that He
conceals Himself from those who tempt Him,
and manifests Himself to those who seek Him ;
for mankind are, at the same time, unworthy of
God, and capable of being restored to His
favour: unworthy by their depravity, but
capable by the constitution of their nature.
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THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
5. Every thing in the world shows either the
unhappy condition of man, or the mercy of
God ; either the weakness of man without God,
or the power of man assisted by God. The
whole universe bears witness to the corruption
or the redemption of man. Every thing be
tokens his grandeur or his degradation. The
withdrawment of God is seen among the
Pagans ; the protection of God is seen among
the Jews.
6. Every thing tends to the good of the elect,
even the obscurities of Scripture ; for they
reverence them on account of the divine
illumination of other parts of the sacred
volume : and every thing is perverted to a
bad purpose by the impious — even the most
luminous parts of Scripture ; for they bias- 1*
pheme them on account of the remaining ob- 1
scurities, which are above their comprehension. -f
7. If Jesus Christ had come only for the
purpose of Redemption, the whole of Scripture,
and all things else, would have co-operated to
that end ; and nothing would have been easier
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THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
than to convince infidels : as, however, He
came for a stone of stumbling and rock of
offence, we cannot overcome their obduracy.
But this is no argument against the truth of
our sentiments ; since we maintain, that it is
agreeable to the whole course of the divine
dispensations that no conviction shall be pro
duced in the minds of the self-willed, and those
who are not sincerejeekers of truth.
Jesus Christ came that those who saw not
might see, and that those that saw might
become blind : He came to cure the sick, and
to leave the whole to perish ; to call sinners to
repentance, and justify them ; and to leave
in their sins those who thought themselves
righteous ; to satisfy the needy, and send the
rich empty away.
What do the prophets predict respecting
Jesus Christ ? That He would appear evidently
as God ? No. But that He would be indeed a
God that hideth Himself; that He would not
be known nor received by the Jewish nation at
large as the Messiah ; that He would be a stone
of stumbling, on which many would fall. That
the Messiah might be recognised by the pious,
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THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
but be indiscernible to the ungodly, the
Almighty so ordered it, that the prophecies
should be of a mixed character, neither
perfectly plain, nor totally obscure. Had the
manner of the Messiah's appearance been
clearly predicted, there would have been no
obscurity even to the wicked. If the time had
been obscurely predicted, there would have been
obscurity even to the pious ; for the rectitude
of their hearts could never have informed them
that, for instance, a Mem o, signifies six hundred
years. The time, therefore, has been predicted
clearly, but the manner in figures.
By this means, the wicked taking the
blessings promised to mean temporal good,
have egregiously erred, although the time has
been clearly predicted ; and the pious have not
erred, because the right apprehension of the
nature of the promises depends on the state of
the heart : for men call that good which tfogy
lova But the determination of the precise
time does not depend on the heart : thus the
prediction of the time being clear, but the
nature of the blessings being obscure, the
wicked only could be misled.
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THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
8. How are these two characteristics of the
Messiah to be reconciled ; that in His person
the sceptre should remain for ever in Judah,
and yet that, at His advent, the sceptre should
be taken away from Judah ? Nothing could
be better adapted than this to verify the say
ing of the prophet, that seeing, they should
not see, and understanding, they should not
understand.
Instead of complaining that God is so con
cealed, it is the duty of men to bless Him, that
He has so far revealed Himself, and also, that
He has not discovered Himself to the worldly
wise, or to the proud, who are unworthy to
know so holy a God.
9. The genealogy of Jesus Christ in the Old
Testament is so mixed with a number of unim
portant matters as scarcely to be distinguish
able. If Moses had registered only the
ancestors of Jesus Christ, the line of descent
would have been too palpable; yet, as it
now stands, it may be discovered, on close
inspection, and traced through Tamar, Ruth,
etc.
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THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
Let no one, then, reproach our religion with
its defect of clearness, since we profess this
to be its character. But let the truth of re
ligion be acknowledged even in its obscurity,
in the little knowledge we have of it, and in the
indifference we feel about knowing it.
If there had been no false religions, or if
there had been martyrs only in ours, God
would have been too manifest.
Jesus Christ, to leave the impious in their
blindness, never said that He was not of
Nazareth, nor that He was not the Son of
Joseph.
10. As Jesus Christ remained unknown
among men, so truth remains unknown among
vulgar opinions, without any external difference :
thus the Eucharist among common bread.
If the mercy of God is so great that even
when He conceals Himself, He gives us the
knowledge of salvation, how great will be our
illumination when He discovers Himself!
We can understand none of the works of ;
God unless we assume, as a first principle, that
He blinds some and enlightens others.
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MISCELLANEOUS THOUGHTS ON
RELIGION
1. Pyrrhonism has been of service to the
cause of religion; for, after all, men, before
the coming of Jesus Christ, knew not their
condition, nor whether their nature was great
or insignificant. Those who asserted either
one or the other, had no certain knowledge,
and merely divined without reason and at
hazard.
2. Who will blame Christians for not being N >
able to render a reason for their belief, when
they profess a religion for which they cannot
render a reason, but on the contrary, declare,
in announcing it to mankind, that it is foolish
ness ? and can you complain that their religion
being such, they do not prove it ? If they
proved it, they would falsify their own assertion;
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THOUGHTS OF BLAISE
it is this very want of proof that rendei^what
they say intelligible. But while this excuses
them for presenting it as they do, and for
announcing it without proof, it does not excuse
those, who, after hearing x the exposition of
their doctrine, refuse to believe it.
3. Do you think it impossible that God
should be infinite without parts ? Yes. Let
me show you then a thing that is at once in
finite and indivisible : it is a point moving with
infinite swiftness.
Let this natural phenomenon, which before
hand might seem impossible, lead you to
suspect that there may be many other truths
which you do not yet know. Do not, while
only in your novitiate, draw the inference, that
nothing remains for you to learn ; but rather
infer, that there remains an infinity of things
for you to learn.
4. The conduct of God, which is always
marked with benignity, is to implant religion
in the understanding by arguments, and in the
heart by grace. But to aim at introducing it
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heart and the understanding, by
force and threatenings, is not the way to
sanctify, but to terrify. Begin by commiserat
ing unbelievers : they are already sufficiently
unhappy. We must not use them harshly,
excepting for their benefit ; but, in fact, this
will always do them harm.
The doctrines of religion are comprised in
Jesus Christ and in Adam ; and its morals in
our native corruption and in grace.
5. The heart has its arguments, which reason
knows not : this is felt in a thousand ways.
It loves universal being naturally, and itself
naturally, when it feels disposed ; and it
hardens itself against both at its pleasure.
You have renounced the one and kept the
other. Is this agreeable to reason ?
6. The world subsists to display the mercy
and the justice of God : men are not treated as
they would be were they the same as when
they issued from the hands of their Maker ;
but as His enemies, God in mercy bestows upon
them light sufficient to return to Him, if they
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are disposed to seek and to follow Him ; and
sufficient to condemn them, if they refuse to
seek and follow Him.
7. Let men say what they will, I must avow
there is something astonishing in the Christian
Religion. "You are prejudiced in its favour,
because you were born in it," say some. No,
far from that, I look upon it with greater
caution, lest prejudice should lead me astray ;
but although I was born in it, I cannot help
finding that it is as I assert.
8. There are two modes of inducing men to
believe the truths of our religion ; the one by
the force of argument, the other by the
authority of the speaker. Many people make
use not of the last, but of the first. They do
not say, You must believe this, for divine
Revelation asserts it ; but you must believe
for such and such a reason. — A feeble mode of
arguing, since reason may be turned various
ways.
Those who appear most opposed to religion,
may not be wholly useless in reference to
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others. We take as our first proof of it, that
there is something preternatural in their
conduct ; for a blindness of this sort cannot be
natural : and if their folly makes them act
so much at variance with their true interest,
it may serve at least to preserve others, by
exciting horror at an example so deplorable,
and a folly so pitiable.
9. Without Jesus Christ, the world could
not continue to exist ; for necessarily it would
be destroyed, or become a hell.
Shall the only being who knows his own
nature, know it only to be miserable ? Shall
the only being who knows his own nature,
be the only unhappy being ?
It is not necessary that man should see
nothing at all ; nor that he should see enough
to believe that he possesses truth ; but he
should see enough to know that he has lost it :
and to know what we have lost, we must, at
the same time see and not see ; and this is
precisely the condition of our nature.
The true religion must instruct man in his
grandeur and his misery ; it must lead him to
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THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
esteem and to despise himself — to love and to
hate himself.
I see that the Christian Religion is founded
on a preceding one, and this is one evidence
of its truth.
I do not speak at present of the miracles
of Moses, of Jesus Christ, and His apostles,
because they may not appear at first sight
convincing; but I propose to bring forward
those fundamental proofs of the Christian
Religion, which no person whatsoever can call
in question.
10. Religion is an object of such grandeur,
that those who will not take the trouble to
examine if it is obscure, deserve to be deprived
of it. Why should men complain, if it is an
object which to be found, only requires to be
sought for ?
Pride counterbalances and supports us
against all our miseries. What a strange
prodigy is man ! How plainly is he a wanderer !
Behold him fallen from his high estate and
restless to regain it !
Mankind being in a state of corruption, it is
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right that all should know it ; both those who
are contented with it, and those who are not.
But it is not a matter of justice, that all should
be acquainted with redemption.
When you say that Jesus Christ did not die
for all, you favour the fallacy of the men who
immediately make themselves the exception ;
the sentiment tends to despair, instead of pre
serving them from it, by cherishing hope.
11. The ungodly, who blindly abandon them
selves to their passion, without knowing God,
and without giving themselves the trouble
to seek Him, verify, in their own persons, the
fundamental principle of the religion they
oppose, namely, that human nature is in a
state of corruption. And the Jews, who so
pertinaciously oppose the Christian Religion,
verify another fundamental principle of the
faith they endeavour to destroy ; namely, that
Jesus Christ is the true Messiah, who came to
redeem men, and to rescue them from their
corruption and misery : they verify this as
much by their present condition, which was
foretold by their own prophets, as by the
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THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
prophecies in their possession, which they have
preserved inviolate, and contain the marks by
which to distinguish the Messiah. Thus proofs
of the corruption of human nature, and of the
Redemption by Jesus Christ, the two great
verities in the Christian System, are drawn
from the profane, who live in a state of in
difference to religion, and from the Jews who
are its irreconcilable enemies.
12. In the state of innocence, the dignity
of man consisted in his ruling over inferior
creatures, and using them ; but now it consists
in separating himself from them.
13. The errors of many persons are more
dangerous from being founded on some truth.
The fault does not lie in pursuing falsehood ;
but in pursuing one truth to the exclusion of
another.
There are a great number of truths, both in
religion and morals, that appear repugnant and
contradictory, and which nevertheless subsist
in admirable harmony.
The source of all heresies is the exclusion of
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THOUGHTS OP BLAISE PASCAL
some of these truths ; and the source of all the
objections of heretics is ignorance of some of
the truths we hold.
And in general it happens, that not being
able to perceive the relation of two opposite
truths, and believing that the reception of
the one involves the exclusion of the other,
they attach themselves to one and reject the
other. The Nestorians held that there were
two persons in Jesus Christ, because there
were two natures ; and the Eutychians, on the
contrary, held that there was only one nature,
because there was only one person. The
Catholics are orthodox, because they combine
the two truths of two natures and one person.
We believe that the substance of the bread
being changed into that of our Lord Jesus
Christ, He is really present in the holy
Sacrament. This is one truth. Another is,
that this Sacrament is also a symbol of the
cross and of glory, and a commemoration of
both. Here we have the Catholic faith, which
comprehends these two apparently opposite
truths.
The heretics of the present day, not con-
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THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
ceiving that this Sacrament contains both the
presence of Jesus Christ and His Symbol — that
it is, at the same time, a sacrifice, and the
commemoration of a sacrifice, believe that
one of these truths cannot be admitted without
excluding the other.
For this reason they attach themselves ex
clusively to one point ; that the Sacrament is
figurative, and in this they are not heretical.
They suppose that we deny this truth; and
hence they object to us so many passages of
the fathers in which it is asserted; but they
deny the real presence, and in this they are
heretical.
On this account, the shortest method of
preventing heresies, is to inculcate all truths ;
and the surest method of refuting them is to
announce all truths.
Grace will always exist in the world, and so
will nature. There will always be Pelagians,
and always Catholics; because the first birth
produces the former, and the second birth
produces the latter.
This is the Church which merits with Jesus
Christ, who is inseparable from it, the con-
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THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
version of all those who are not yet of the true
religion ; and these are the persons, who, when
converted, aid the mother who has brought
them forth.
The body is not any more alive without the
head, than the head without the body. Who
ever separates himself from either, no longer
belongs to the body, or to Jesus Christ. All
virtues, martyrdom, austerities, and good works,
out of the pale of the Church, and of communion
with the head of the Church, the Pope, are
useless.
It will be one of the horrors of the damned,
that they will be condemned by their own
reason ; that reason by which they pretended
to condemn the Christian Religion.
*
14. The ordinary life of men, and that of
saints, have one thing in common ; namely,
that they both aspire after happiness, but they
differ as to the object in which they place it.
Both term those things enemies which prevent
the attainment of their main object.
We must judge of good and evil by the will
of God, which can never be unjust or erroneous,
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THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
and not by our own will, which is always full of
unrighteousness and error.
15. Jesus Christ has given in His Gospel this
mark to distinguish true believers. That they
shall speak a new language ; and, in fact, the
renovation of the thoughts and desires naturally
causes a renovation of the language. For these
divine novelties, which render it impossible to
displease God, as it was impossible for the old
man to please Him, differ from the novelties of
earth in this respect, that the things of the
world, however new they may be, lose their
freshness and beauty the longer they continue,
while the renovated spirit is renewed more
and more as long as it exists. "The outward
man perisheth," saith St Paul, " but the inward
man is renewed day by day " (2 Cor. iv. 16), but it
will be perfectly renewed only in eternity, where
it will sing for ever that new song of which
David speaks in the Psalms (Ps. xxxii. 3), the
song which is inspired by the newspirit of charity.
16. When St Peter and the other apostles
deliberated on the abolition of circumcision,
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and whether it was contrary to the law of God,
they did not determine the question by the
prophecies, but by the fact of the collation of
the Holy Spirit to the uncircumcised. They
decided that it was more certain that God
approved those whom He filled with His Spirit,
than that the ceremonial law was to be observed :
they knew that the Holy Spirit was the end of the
law, and that since fy could be received without
circumcision, this rite was not indispensable.
17. Two laws are sufficient to regulate the
whole Christian community, far better than
all political laws ; namely, the love of God
and the love of our neighbour. The Christian
Religion is adapted to minds of every order.
The generality of mankind content themselves
with observing its present condition and estab
lishment; and such is our religion, that its
establishment alone is sufficient to convince
them of its truth : other persons trace it to the
apostolic age. The more enlightened trace it
to the beginning of the world. Angels have a
still more comprehensive view of it, for they see
it in God.
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THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
Those to whom God imparts religion, by the
feelings of the heart, are very happy and
perfectly persuaded. As for those who have
it not, we cannot bring it within their reach,
except by argument, trusting that God Himself
will impress it on their hearts, without which
faith is inefficient for salvation.
God, in order to reserve to Himself the sole
right of instructing us, and to render the
mystery of our condition inexplicable, has
placed what forms its essence so high, or
rather so deep, that we are incapable of
reaching it ; so that it is not by the toilsome
investigations of reason, but by its unreserved
submission, that we are able truly to know
ourselves.
18. The rejecters of Revelation who profess
to make reason their guide, ought to be well
furnished with arguments. What, then, do
they say ? - - " Do we not see the inferior
animals live and die like men, and Turks like
Christians ? The Turks have their ceremonies,
their prophets, their doctors, their saints, their
devotees, as we have." But is this contrary to
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THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
Scripture ? does it not foretell all this ? If you
feel no anxiety to know the truth, what you
allege may pass as a pretext to continue un
disturbed. But if you desire with all your
heart to know it, this will not be sufficient;
you must enter into details. Your objection,
perhaps, might be sufficient, if it related to a
vain speculation in philosophy, but the matter
in hand is your all. And yet, after uttering
some such shallow objections, men will turn to
their amusements again !
It is awful to feel that every thing we
possess is hastening away, and to persist in
our attachment, without being anxious to
examine if there is no object attainable that
will be permanent.
The tenor of our lives ought to be very
different, according to these very different
suppositions, That we shall be here always,
or that it is certain we shall not be here long,
and uncertain whether we shall be here a
single hour. — This last supposition is the true
one.
19. Even on the ground of probability, you
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THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
ought to be at the pains of searching for truth.
For if you die, without serving the true God,
you will be lost. But say you, if it had been
His will that I should serve Him, He would have
given indications of it. He has done so, but
yoiuneglect^them. At least search for them ;
this must be right.
Atheists ought to have the clearest reasons
for their sentiments. But that man must be
destitute of all sound sense, who will assert
that it is perfectly clear that the soul is not
immortal. I will not find fault with any one
for not sifting to the bottom the opinions of
Copernicus ; but it is of infinite importance
to know whether the soul be mortal or
immortal.
20. The prophecies, miracles, and other
evidences of our religion, are not of such a
nature, that we can say they are geometrically
convincing. But for the present, I am satis
fied, if you will grant that to believe them
is not an offence against reason. They possess
both clearness and obscurity, to enlighten
some and to perplex others. But their clear-
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THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
ness is such, that it surpasses, or at least
equals, whatever clearness there may be on
the opposite side ; so that reason cannot
decide not to receive them ; and indeed it is
more probable that their rejection will be
owing to the corrupt propensities of the heart.
Thus there is clearness sufficient to condemn
those who refuse to believe, but not sufficient
to compel them, in order to show that in
those that follow the light, it is grace and not
reason that induces them to follow it, and that
in those who shun the light, it is owing to de
pravity, and not to reason that they shun it.
Who can help admiring and embracing a
religion, which contains the fullest explication
of truths of which we discern the reality, just
in proportion as our illumination increases.
A man who discovers the evidences of the
Christian Religion, is like an heir who finds
the title deeds of his estate. Will he say that
they are false, or neglect to examine them ?
21. Two sorts of persons know that there is a
God ; those whose hearts are humble, and who
love abasement and neglect, whatever degree
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THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
of intellect they possess, whether high or low ;
or those who have sufficient intellect to discern
the truth, whatever may be the repugnance of
their hearts to it.
The Philosophers among the Pagans, who
maintained that there was a God, were perse
cuted, the Jews have been hated, the Christians
still more so.
22. I do not see that there is greater difficulty
in believing the resurrection of the body, and
the miraculous conception, than in believing
the creation. Is it more difficult to reproduce
man, than to bring him into being ? And if
we had not been acquainted with the usual
mode of generation, would it have appeared
more wonderful that a child should be born of
a virgin, rather than be the offspring of two
persons of different sexes.
23. There is a great difference between
repose and security of conscience. Nothing
ought to give repose but the sincere search of
truth ; and nothing can give assurance but the
possession of truth.
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There are two verities of our religion that
are equally unchangeable : one is, that man in
the state of creation or of grace is at the head
of all the creatures on the earth, bears the
likeness of God, and is partaker of a divine
nature ; the other is, that in a state of corrup
tion and sinfulness he is fallen and become
like the beasts. These two propositions are
equally firm and certain. The Scriptures an
nounce them most distinctly in the following
passages : — " My delights were with the sons of
men, Prov. viii. 31. — I will pour out my Spirit
upon all flesh, Joel ii. 28. — I said ye are Gods,
Psalm Ixxxi. 6." And in other passages, such
as, " All flesh is grass, Isaiah xlix. 12. — Man is
like the beasts that perish, Psalm xviii. 13. — I
said in my heart, concerning the estates of the
sons of men, that God might manifest them,
and that they might see that they themselves
are beasts," Eccles. iii. 18.
24. The example of generous deaths among
the Lacedemonians, and other heathen nations,
can hardly affect us ; for what is all this to us ?
But the examples of the Martyrs affect us;
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THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
they are members of the same body. We have
a bond of union and sympathy with them —
their resolution may confirm our own. There
is no benefit of this sort from Pagan examples
— we have no connection with them. Thus the
riches of a stranger are not ours, though those
of a father or a husband are so most truly.
25. We can never separate ourselves without
pain from an object to which we are attached ;
we do not feel the tie, as long as we voluntarily
follow that which draws us on, as St Augustine
says, but when we attempt to resist and to
move in an opposite direction, our sorrow
begins ; the tie is strained and suffers violence :
such a tie is our body, which will not be dis
solved till death. Our Lord declared that from
the time of John the Baptist, that is, from the
time of His entering the heart of each believer,
" the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence,
and the violent taketh it by storm," Matt. xi.
12. Before the soul is touched by grace, it is
acted upon only by that weight of concupiscence
which keeps it down to the earth. But when
God draws it toward heaven, these two contrary
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forces produce that conflict which God alone
can terminate. We can do all things, however,
says St Leo, by the aid of Him without whom
we can do nothing. We must then resolve to
endure this warfare all through life, for here
there can be no peace. " Jesus Christ came
not to bring peace, but a sword," Matt. x. 34.
Nevertheless it must be acknowledged, that as
the wisdom of men is only folly before God
(1 Cor. iii. 19), so we may say, that this warfare
which wears so direful an aspect, is peace
with God, that peace which Jesus Christ also
brought. Yet it will not be perfected till the
body be destroyed, and this makes death
desirable : meanwhile we cheerfully endure to
live for the love of Him who endured for us
both life and death, and "who is able to do
exceeding abundantly above all that we can
ask or think," Eph. iii. 20.
26. We must endeavour not to afflict our
selves with the events of life, and to take
everything which happens for the best. I
believe that this is a duty, and that we sin in
not performing it. For, in short, the reason
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THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
why our sins are sins, is only because they are
contrary to the will of God ; and since the
essence of sin consists in having a will opposed
to what we know is God's will, it is plain to me
that when His will is discovered to us by
events, it must be a sin not to conform our
selves to it.
27. When truth is abandoned and perse
cuted, it seems to be a season in which its
defence is a service peculiarly agreeable to
God. He allows us to judge of grace by
nature, and thus we may infer, that as a
prince, forced from his kingdom by his
subjects, feels an extraordinary regard for
those who remain faithful to him amidst the
general revolt; so God looks with peculiar
good-will on those who defend the purity of
religion when it is violently assailed.
But there is this difference between the
kings of the earth and the King of kings, that
princes do not make their subjects faithful,
but find them so ; while God always finds men
faithless without His grace, and makes them
faithful when they become such. So that
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while kings generally acknowledge themselves
under obligations to those who remain in their
duty and allegiance, on the other hand, those
who continue in the service of God are in
finitely indebted to Him for preserving them
from defection.
28. Neither bodily austerities, nor mere
intellectual efforts, are praiseworthy ; but right
emotions of the heart, which enable us to
endure the pains both of body and mind. For
two things contribute to our sanctification—
pains and pleasure. St Paul has declared,
that we must, through much tribulation, enter
into the kingdom of God, Acts xiv. 21. This
should console those who suffer tribulation,
since having been apprised that the way to
heaven is full of it, they ought to rejoice in
possessing this mark of being in the right way.
But the difficulties they meet with are not
without pleasures, and cannot be overcome
without pleasure. For as those who forsake
God to return to the world, do so only because
they find more delight in its pleasures, than in
communion with God, and are enthralled by
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its charms, which cause them to repent of
their first choice, and make them (as Tertullian
terms it) the^DeyiFs penitents; so the pious
would never quit the pleasures of the world to
take up the cross of Jesus Christ, if they did
not find more delight in poverty, in the scorn,
rejection, and reproach of men, than in the
pleasures of sin. Therefore, as Tertullian
again remarks, we must not believe that the
life of Christians is a life of sadness. They
would not quit the pleasures of the world
excepting for greater pleasures. "Pray with
out ceasing," says St Paul, — " in every thing
give thanks,"- -"rejoice evermore," 1 Thess. v.
16, 17, 18. It is the joy of having found God
which is the source of sorrow for having
offended Him, and of a total change of life.
The man who found treasure hid in a field
was so rejoiced, that he parted with all he had
in order to purchase the field (Matt. xiii. 44).
Men of the world have their sorrows, but as
Jesus Christ Himself affirmed, they have not
that "joy which the world can neither give nor
take away," John xiv. 27 and 16. The blessed
in heaven have this joy without any sorrow;
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and Christians have this joy mingled with
sorrow, — sorrow for having pursued other
pleasures, and for fear of losing it by the
attraction of those pleasures that still inces
santly allure them. Thus we ought to labour
continually to cherish that fear which protects
while it attempers our joy ; and whenever we
feel ourselves too much inclined to the one, we
should bend our minds to the other, in order
to preserve the balance. " Think of prosperity
in the day of affliction, and think of affliction
in the day of joy," Eccles. xi. 27, until the
promise of Jesus Christ, that our joy shall be
full, is accomplished. Let us not allow our
selves to sink into dejection, nor believe that
piety consists in disconsolate anguish. True
piety, though found perfect only in heaven, is
so replete with satisfaction, that it fills the soul
with it in its commencement, progress, and
consummation. It is a light so resplendent,
that it sheds lustre on everything connected
with it. If there is some sorrow mingled with
it, especially at its commencement, this springs
from ourselves, and not from virtue ; it is not
the effect of the piety that is beginning to exist
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in our minds, but of the impiety which still
remains. Take away the impiety, and there
will be joy unmingled. Let us not attribute
sorrow, then, to devotion, bltt to ourselves;
and seek to assuage it only by the correction
of our own spirits.
29. The past ought not to trouble us ; we
have only to lament our own faults ; and still
less ought the future to affect us, since, with
respect to us, it is non-existent, and perhaps
we shall never reach it. The present is the
only time which is truly ours, and which we
must employ agreeably to the will of God.
It is on this portion of existence that our
thoughts ought to be chiefly occupied. Yet
such is the restless disposition of mankind, that
they scarcely ever bestow a thought on the
present moment, the time in which they are
actually living, but fix their attention on the
future in which they expect to live. They are
always about to live, anuare never living. But
our Lord has enjoined us to be content with
making provision for the day that is passing
over us. This is the limit which He has pre-
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scribed for our salvation and for our tran
quillity.
30. We may often more effectually improve
our characters, by observing what is wrong in
others, than by noticing examples of good ; and
it is well to accustom one's self to gain advan
tage from evil, since that is so common, while
goodness is so rare.
31. The thirteenth chapter of St Mark con
tains the sublime discourse of Jesus Christ
to His apostles on His second coming : and as
everything that happens to the Church, happens
also to each individual Christian, we may as
sume that this chapter predicts the state of
every person, who, at conversion, destroys the
old man within, as well as the state of the whole
world, which will be destroyed preparatory to the
new heavens and new earth, wherein dwelleth
righteousness, 2 Pet. iii. 13. The prophecy it
contains, of the destruction of the rejected
Jewish temple, which prefigures the ruin of the
man of sin within each of us ; of which temple
it is said, " that not one stone shall be left on
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another," indicates that we ought not to spare
any affection of the old man; and by the dread
ful civil wars and domestic feuds predicted, the
internal conflicts of those who devote them
selves to God, are so perfectly represented, that
nothing can exceed the accuracy of the de
lineation.
32. The Holy Spirit dwells invisibly in the
relics of those who die in the Lord, and will
manifest Himself in them at the Resurrection :
this circumstance renders the relics of saints
so worthy of veneration. For God never
abandons His own people, not even in the tomb,
where their bodies though dead to the eyes of
men, are more alive than before in the sight of
God ; because sin, which always resides in them
during life (at least the principle of it), is there
no longer : the root of bitterness inseparable
from them during life, prevents us from
honouring them till death, since before that
event, they are rather deserving of hatred.
Death is necessary to destroy entirely this root
of bitterness, and is on that account so
desirable.
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33. In the description of the last judgment,
the elect are represented as unconscious of
their virtues, and the reprobate of their
crimes. " Lord," say both, " when saw we
Thee hungry ? " Matt. xxv. 37-44.
Jesus Christ would not suffer evil spirits, or
persons whom He had not called to be His
disciples, to bear witness of Him ; but chose
the testimony of God and of John the Baptist.
34. Montaigne's blemishes are very great.
His writings are full of impure and loose
expressions. This is bad enough, but this is /. %
not all. His sentiments on suicide and death /
are horrible. He would inspire an utter care
lessness about salvation, without fear or
remorse. His book not being formally on the
subject of religion, he was not obliged to intro
duce it ; but every one is under an obligation
not to prejudice men against it. Whatever
may be said to excuse his lax notions on many
subjects, no excuse can be made for his utterly
pagan sentiments on death: for all sense of
religion must be lost, if a man do not wish at
least to die a Christian; but throughout his
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writings, his only wish seems to be, to die
without pain or anxiety.
35. One cause of deception, in comparing
former ages of the Church with the present, is,
that we are apt to look upon St Athanasius,
St Theresa and others, as crowned with
glory. They may indeed appear so to us, since
time has placed their characters in a proper
light. But when this great saint was perse
cuted, he was simply a man who went by the
name of Athanasius, and St Theresa was a
pious woman like the rest of her sisterhood.
Elias was a man of like passions with ourselves,
says St James (James v. 17), in order to
correct the false notion prevalent among
Christians, which would lead them to neglect
the example of the saints, as unadapted to our
times. They were saints, we are apt to say,
and not common mortals like ourselves.
36. The proper method of treating persons
who feel a repugnance to religion, is to begin
with showing them that it is not contrary to
reason ; then to prove that it is venerable, in
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order to gain their respect; after that, to
display its excellence that they may wish to
find it true. We must produce indisputable
arguments for its truth ; we must show its
antiquity and holiness, by its grandeur and
elevation, and evince its excellence by its
promises of the only true good.
A single expression of David or Moses, like
this, " God will circumcise your heart," Deut.
xxx. 6, is decisive of their spirit. Supposing
all they ever wrote beside were ambiguous, and
that it was even doubtful whether they were
philosophers or Christians, such a phrase as
this determines the point ; whatever ambiguity
might exist before, is entirely removed.
If we are deceived ifl fceyi^viftg the Christian
Religion to be _true, the .consequences are
trifling. But if it be true, how woful to deceive
one's self in believing it to be false !
37. The conditions of life most easy to live
in, according to the opinion of the world, are
most difficult to live in, according to the judg
ment of God. On the other hand, nothing is
so difficult to worldly men as a religious life—
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nothing so easy in the judgment of God.
According to the world, nothing is so easy as
to live in splendour and opulence ; in the
judgment of God, nothing is so difficult as to
live in such a condition, without making it our
supreme happiness and our all.
38. The Old Testament contains the symbols
of future joy, the New Testament the means
of obtaining it. The symbols are joyful, the
means are self-denying ; and yet the Pascal
Lamb was eaten with bitter herbs (cum
amaritudinibus, Exod. xii. 18) to signify that
we can attain joy only through sorrow.
39. The word Galilee, uttered accidentally
among the crowd of Jews, when Jesus Christ
was accused before Pilate, Luke xxiii. 5,
occasioned Pilate's sending Him to Herod, by
which the mystery was accomplished, that He
was to be judged by both Jews and Gentiles.
An accident, apparently, was the cause of the
accomplishment of the mystery.
40. A man told me the other day that he felt
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great joy and confidence in coming from con
fession : another person told me, he felt great
alarm. It struck me that if the feelings of both
had been blended, they would have formed the
right temper of mind, and that each was de
fective in not possessing the feelings of the
other.
41. There is pleasure in being on board
a vessel in a storm, when we feel perfectly
assured of our safety. So may Christians feel
during the persecutions of the Church.
The History of the Church may properly be
termed the History of Truth.
42. As the two sources of sin are pride and
sloth, God has displayed two attributes to
destroy them — His mercy and His justice.
The office of justice is to abase our pride ; the
office of mercy is to dissipate our sloth by ex
citing us to good works, according to that
passage, " The goodness of God leadeth thee to
repentance," Rom. ii. 4. And that expression
of the Ninevites, "Let them turn every one
from his evil way, and from the violence that
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is in their hands. Who can tell, if God will
turn and repent, and turn away from His fierce
anger, that we perish not?" Jonah iii. 8, 9.
Thus so far from the mercy of God encourag
ing inactivity, nothing, on the contrary, more
effectually combats it; for instead of saying,
because God will show no mercy we must
make every effort to fulfil His commands, we
should on the contrary, say, because God will
show mercy, we must do all in our power to
obey His will.
43. "All that is in the world is the lust of
the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of
life," 1 John ii. 16. Libido sentiendi, libido
sciendi, libido dominandi. Alas! for the
accursed soil that these three streams of fire
burn up instead of fertilizing! Happy those,
who, though on these streams, are not plunged
into them or carried away by them, but remain
immovable ; not standing with impatience or
alarm, but resting on a secure, though lowly
seat, from which they rise not, till day appear,
and then, having reposed in peace, they stretch
forth their hands to Him who will raise them
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on high, and cause them to stand as pillars
within the gates of the holy Jerusalem, where
they shall never more fear the assaults of pride :
and if they now feel sorrowful, it is not at be
holding all perishable things passing away, but
at the recollection of their beloved country, the
heavenly Jerusalem, after which they cease not
to sigh during the long days of their exile.
44. A miracle, say some, would settle our
belief. They say so, because they have never
seen one. Reasons, which, when seen at
a distance, appear to terminate our view,
terminate it no longer on approaching nearer.
We then see something still beyond. Nothing
can check the giddiness of our minds. There
is no rule, it is said, without an exception ; no
truth so general, as not to fail in some particular
instance. It is enough that it is not absolutely
universal, to give us a pretext for applying the
exception to the point in hand, and for saying,
such or such a thing is not always true, there
fore it is not true in the present case. Nothing
more is wanted than to show that this is the
exception; and we must be blunderers in-
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deed, not to find something that will serve
our turn.
45. Charity is not a figurative precept. To
say that Jesus Christ, who came to take away
figures to introduce charity, did in fact only
substitute the figure of charity and take away
the reality, is horrible.
46. How many stars has the telescope dis
covered to us, which had no existence to the
philosophers of former days? They did not
hesitate to call the authority of the Scriptures
in question, for so often mentioning the count
less multitude of stars. There are only one
thousand and twenty-two, said they — we are
perfectly sure of that.
47. Man is so constituted, that by dint of
telling him that he is a fool, he will believe it ;
and even by dint of telling himself the same
thing, he will make himself believe it ; for man
carries on in his bosom a converse with him
self, which it greatly behoves him to regulate.
" Evil communications corrupt good manners."
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Corrumpunt mores bonos colloquia mala, 1
Cor. xv. 33. We must maintain silence as
much as possible, and converse respecting God
alone ; thus we shall convince ourselves of His
presence.
48. What difference is there between a
soldier and a Carthusian as to obedience ?
they are equally obedient and dependent, and
their duties are equally laborious. Why, the
difference is this ; the soldier always hopes to
become a commander, though he never attains
his wish (for generals, and even princes, are
always slaves and dependants), however," he
always hopes for independence, and strives
continually to acquire it : while a Carthusian
has vowed never to become independent.
They do not differ in the perpetuity of their
servitude, for that is the same to both, but in
the hope of its termination, which the one has
and the other has not.
49. Our self-will is never satisfied, even when
it has obtained all it desires ; but we are
satisfied the instant we renounce it: with it,
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we cannot help being discontented ; without
it, we cannot help being content. Man's true
and only virtue is to hate himself; for his
concupiscence renders him hateful: and to
seek a being truly worthy of love, in order to
love him. But as we cannot love that which is
out of ourselves, we must love a being who can
be within us, and who yet is distinct from our
selves. Now this can be none but an Infinite
Being. "The kingdom of God is within us,"
Luke xvii. 21. The Infinite good is within us
and is not ourselves.
It is not right that persons should attach
themselves to us, although they do it with
pleasure and voluntarily. We shall deceive
those in whom we excite the desire : for we
are not the end of any rational being, nor have
we wherewith to satisfy such a one. Are we
not always liable to death ? and thus the object
of their attachment must sooner or later
perish. As we should be criminal to induce
the belief of a falsehood, although we might
persuade men with ease, and they might believe
it with pleasure, and in doing so might give us
pleasure ; so we are criminal if we allure others
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to love us and dote upon us. It is our duty to
warn those who are ready to assent to a false
hood, not to believe it, whatever advantage
might accrue to ourselves : in like manner, we
must warn men not to give their affections to
us, for they ought to spend their lives either in
pleasing God or in seeking Him.
50. To put our trust in formalities and
ceremonies is superstition; but not to be
willing to submit to them is pride.
51. All the religions and sects in the world
have had natural reason for their guide :
Christians alone are bound to take their rules
out of themselves, and to acquaint themselves
with those which Jesus Christ left with the
ancients to be transmitted to us. Some people
are impatient of this restraint: they wish to
have, like the rest of the world, the_liberty of
following their_own imaginations. In vain we
charge them~as the prophets did the Jews:
"Go into the midst of the Church, inform
yourselves of the laws handed down from the
ancients, and follow in their paths," — they
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answer like the Jews, " We will not go there —
we will follow the devices of our own hearts
and be like others." Jer. vi. 16, Ezek. xx. 32.
52. There are three ways of believing —
Reason, Custom and Divine Influence. The
Christian Religion, which alone has reason on
its side, does not admit for its true disciples
those who believe without divine influence.
Not by any means that it excludes reason and
custom ; on the contrary, it opens the mind to
arguments by reason, and confirms it in them
by custom ; but it always would have the soul
submit itself to those heavenly inspirations,
which alone can produce a true and saving
effect; "lest the cross of Christ should be
made of none effect," 1 Cor. i. 17.
53. Men never commit injustice so readily,
and with so little concern, as when they act
upon a false principle of conscience.
54. The Jews, who were called to subdue
nations and kings, were the slaves of sin ; and
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Christians, whose calling has been to obey and
be in submission, are the sons of freedom.
55. Can it be courage in a dying man, amidst
weakness and agony, to defy an almighty and
eternal Deity ?
56. I willingly believe narratives, the wit
nesses of which are ready to lay down their
lives for their testimony.
57. Right fear proceeds from faith ; false fear
from doubt : right fear leads to hope, because
it springs from faith, and men hope in God
when they believe Him; vicious fear leads to
despair, because men fear a God in whom they
have no confidence. The former class fear to
lose God, and the latter to find Him.
58. Solomon and Job were best acquainted
with the misery of man, and have spoken best
upon it ; the one the most happy of men, the
other the most unhappy; the one knew by
experience the vanity of pleasure, the other,
the reality of affliction.
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59. The Pagans spoke evil of Israel, and so
did the prophet Ezekiel ; but so far from the
Israelites having a right to say, You speak
like the Pagans, he enforces his declarations
by this circumstance, that the Pagans spoke as
he did.
60. God does not intend that we should
submit our belief to Him without reason, nor
does He exact a blind obedience like a tyrant.
But neither does He profess to give us a
reason for every thing ; and to unite these two
opposite views, He means to show us clearly
those divine marks which will convince us what
is His real character, and to establish His
authority, by miracles and proofs that we can
not gainsay : after this we are to believe, with
out hesitation, whatever He declares, when we
find no other reason for withholding our assent
except that we are unable, by our own powers,
to determine whether it be true or not.
61. There are three sorts of persons : Those
who have God and serve Him — those who are
busy in seeking Him, but have not found Him
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— and those, who not having found Him,
live without seeking Him. The first are
rational and happy; the last are foolish and
unhappy; the other class are unhappy but
rational.
62. Men often mistake the imagination for the
heart, and believe they are converted, because
they think about being converted.
Reason acts slowly, and it needs to keep con
tinually before it so many views and different
principles, that, unable to see them all at
once, its conceptions are often indistinct and
erroneous. It is not so with feeling ; that acts
instantaneously, and is always ready to act.
Therefore, having acquired a knowledge of
truth by reason, we should endeavour to feel
it, and to support our belief by the sentiments
of the heart ; otherwise it will always be un
certain and wavering.
The heart has its arguments, of which Reason
knows nothing ; we feel it in a thousand ways.
It is the heart which feels God, and not reason.
This indeed is perfect faith, God sensible to
the heart.
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63. It is the essential to the nature of God
that His justice should be as infinite as His
mercy: nevertheless His justice and severity
towards the reprobate, is less astonishing than
His mercy towards the elect.
64. Man is evidently made for thinking. In
this all his dignity and all his merit consist.
His whole duty is comprised in thinking justly ;
and the proper order of his thinking is to
commence with himself, his author, and his
end. But what does man think of? never of
these things; but of diversion, of riches, of
fame, perhaps of being a king, without reflect
ing what it is to be a king, or even to be a
man.
The faculty of thinking, is, in itself, most
worthy of admiration. It must have strange
defects to be contemptible. But its defects
are so great, that, in fact, nothing is more
ridiculous. How elevated by its nature ! How
mean by its defects !
65. If there be a God, we must love Him
alone, and not creatures. The reasoning of
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the profane, in the book of Wisdom, is founded
altogether on the persuasion that there is no
God. Let this be assumed, say they, and we
may indulge fearlessly in earthly gratification.
But if they knew that there is a God, they must
draw the directly opposite conclusion. And
such is the conclusion of the wise. There is a
God, then let us not indulge in earthly gratifica
tions. Therefore, all that excites us to fix our
affections to created good is evil, since it
prevents either from serving God, if we know
Him, or from seeking Him if we know Him
not. But we are full of concupiscence ; then
we are full of evil, and we ought to hate our
selves and every thing which would fix our
affections on something else than the Creator.
66. When we wish to think of God, how
many things are we sensible of, which divert
our thoughts from Him, and fix them on other
objects. Every thing of this sort is evil, and
born with us.
67. It is not true that we are worthy of the
regard of our fellow-men : it is unjust that we
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should desire it. If we were born capable of
exercising reason, and with some knowledge of
ourselves and others, we should not feel this
desire. But we have this desire at our birth :
we are therefore born unjust ; for every man is
addicted to self. This is contrary to all order ;
order tends to the general good, and this
addiction to self is the germ of all disorders, of
all contentions, in states and in families.
If the members of natural and civil com
munities seek the good of each general body,
these communities also should seek the good /
of a more general body. /
Whoever does not hate in himself this
selfishness and instinctive love of pre-eminence
is wretchedly blind ; for nothing can be more
opposite to truth and justice. It is not true
that we deserve such distinction ; and it is as
impossible as it is unjust, that we should
obtain it; since it is an object which all men
are pursuing. We therefore evidently come
into the world with a propensity to injustice,
of which we cannot divest ourselves, and yet
of which we ought to be divested.
Nevertheless, the Christian religion alone
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has marked this disposition as criminal, and
declared that we are born with it, and that we
are under obligation to resist it; nor has any
other religion furnished us with the means of
eradicating it.
68. There is an internal war in man, between
reason and the passions. He might enjoy
some peace, had he reason without the
passions, or the passions without reason. But
having both, he is never exempt from war ; he
is never able to be at peace with the one,
without being at war with the other. So that
he is in a state of perpetual opposition and
contradiction to himself.
69. It is certain, that the soul is either
mortal or immortal. And it makes the utmost
difference as to the conduct of life, which
of these suppositions is the true one. Yet
philosophers have formed their moral systems
independently of this fact. What strange
blindness !
The last act is always bloody, however
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entertaining the rest of the play may be. We
then cover the corse, and all is over.
70. God having made the heavens and the
earth, things unconscious of happiness, resolved
to create intelligent beings, who might form a
body composed of intelligent members. All
men are members of this body ; and, in order
to be happy, they must conform their in
dividual will to the universal will, which
governs the general body. Yet it often
happens, that a member believes that it forms
a whole of itself; and, regardless of the body
on which it depends, considers itself inde
pendent, and would fain be its own centre.
But in this state it will find itself as helpless as
a limb separated from the human body :
having no principle of life in itself, it will only
be confused and astonished at the uncer
tainties of its existence. Afterwards, when it
begins to know itself, and is brought back to
its senses, it perceives that it is not the body ;
that it is only a member of a universal body :
that to be a member, is to have being, life, and
motion, only by the spirit which animates the
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body, and for the body; that a member
separated from the body to which it belongs, is
a dying and perishing thing ; that it ought not
therefore to love itself, excepting for the body ;
or rather, it ought to love that alone, since in
doing so, it loves itself, existing only in it, by
it, and for it.
To regulate the love we owe to ourselves,
let us imagine a body composed of thinking
members (for we are members of the universe),
and see how each member ought to love itself.
The body loves the hand ; and the hand,
supposing it to have a will, ought to love itself
in the same degree as the body loves it: all
beyond this is unjust.
If the feet and the hands had a will of their
own, they would never be in their place, except
in submitting it to the will of the body : apart
from this, they would be disordered and
unhappy ; but by aiming simply at the well-
being of the body, they promote their own
well-being.
The members of our body do not perceive
the happy result of their union, — the wonder
ful skill they display, — the care nature has
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shown in influencing the spirits, for their
growth and preservation. If they were capable
of knowing it, and should make use of this
knowledge, to retain in themselves the nourish
ment they receive, without allowing it to pass
into the other members, they would not only be
unjust, but miserable ; and would hate, rather
than love themselves. Their happiness, as well
as their duty, consists in submitting to the
guidance of the soul, which belongs to them
as a whole, and which loves them better than
they love themselves. " He who is joined to
the Lord, is one spirit," 1 Cor. vi. 17. A
Christian loves himself, because he is a member
of Jesus Christ ; he loves Jesus Christ, because
He is the head of the body of which he is a
member: the whole is one ; one is in the other.
Concupiscence and force are the sources of
all actions purely human : concupiscence pro
duces those that are voluntary ; force, such as
are involuntary.
71. The Platonists, and even Epictetus and
his followers, believed that God alone was
worthy of being loved and admired ; and yet
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desired to be themselves loved and admired
by men. They knew not their own corruption.
If they had felt themselves impelled to love
and adore their Maker, and had placed their
delight in His service, they might have thought
well of themselves, with good reason. But if
they felt a repugnance to the Divinity, if they
felt that their hearts were set upon gaining
the esteem of men, and that, in cultivating
their minds, they only acted in such a manner
that, without employing force, men might place
their happiness in loving them ; such perfec
tion, I say, was detestable. And so, then, it
was possible for them to know God, and not to
wish that all men might love Him! They
could be well pleased that men should stop
short of the Supreme Being, and pay homage
to them ! They could desire to be the source
of happiness to men, as far as that depended
on being themselves the objects of their
admiration !
72. It is true, that pain does attend the
exercises of piety. But this pain is not caused
by the piety which is commencing within us,
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but by the impiety which still remains. If our
love of sensible objects did not obstruct our
repentance, and our corruption oppose itself
to the purity of God, there would be nothing
painful to us in the duties of religion. We
suffer pain, in proportion as our natural de
pravity resists supernatural grace. Our heart
is torn by these two opposite forces. But it
would be very unjust to impute this violence
to God, who draws us to Himself, instead of
attributing it to the world, which strives to
retain us. Our situation resembles that of an
infant, whom its mother snatches from the
hands of robbers, and who, in the pain it
suffers, must love the affectionate and rightful
violence which gives it liberty, and shrinks only
from the brutal and lawless violence of those
who would unjustly retain it. The most dread
ful war God can wage against men in this life, is
to leave them without that war which He came
to bring. " I came to bring war," said He ; and
to prepare us for this war, He adds, " I am come
to bring fire and sword," Matt. x. 34; Luke
xii. 49. Before His coming, the world lived in
a false peace.
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73. God regards only the heart ; the Church
judges only by the exterior : God absolves as
soon as He discerns penitence in the heart;
the Church, when she sees it in the actions of
the life. God has formed a Church internally
pure, which confounds, by its internal and
spiritual sanctity, the visible impiety of proud
sages and Pharisees ; and the Church forms an
assembly of men, whose external manners are
so pure, that they put to shame the manners
of the Pagans. If there are hypocrites so well
disguised that their hollowness cannot be
detected, she suffers them to remain ; for,
though they are rejected by God, whom they
cannot deceive, they are received by men,
whom they can deceive. Thus the Church is
not dishonoured by their conduct, which has,
at least, the appearance of sanctity.
74. The law does not destroy nature, but
corrects and informs it ; grace does not destroy
the law, but gives the power to obey it. We
may make an idol of Truth itself; for Truth,
without charity, is not God ; it is His image,
and an idol which we must neither love nor
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adore ; still less must we love and adore its
opposite, Falsehood.
75. All public amusements are dangerous to
the Christian life ; but among all that have
ever been invented, none is more to be feared
than the theatre. The representations it gives
of the passions are so natural and delicate,
that they excite and foster them in our own
hearts ; and more than all the rest, the passion
of love, especially when presented under its
purest and most honourable forms. For the
more innocent it appears to innocent minds,
the more liable are they to be affected by it.
Its energy gratifies our self-conceit, which very
soon indulges the wish to produce the effects
it has seen so admirably represented ; at the
same time, a conviction of the propriety of the
sentiments extinguishes all alarm in pure
minds, who flatter themselves that it cannot
injure their purity to indulge so graceful an
affection. Thus, when they leave the theatre,
their hearts are so enamoured with all the
charms and felicities of love, Jiieir minds are
so persuaded of its innocence, that they are
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fully prepared to receive its impressions, or
rather to seek an opportunity of producing
them in another's heart, that they may receive
the same pleasures and the same sacrifices of
which they have witnessed so fascinating an
exhibition.
76. Lax sentiments are so in unison with the
natural dispositions of mankind, that it is a
wonder they should ever displease. This
happens, however, when they exceed all
bounds. Besides, there are many persons who
see the truth, but who cannot reach it in their
practice. But there are very few who do not
know that religion is opposed to all such
notions, and that it is ridiculous to say, that
eternal happiness is the reward of licentious
conduct.
77. I feared that I had written amiss, when
I found myself condemned ; but the example
of so many pious writers have persuaded me
of the contrary. It is not permitted to write
well.
The whole Inquisition is corrupt or ignorant.
SB 193
THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
It is better to obey God than men. I fear
nothing; I hope for nothing. The Port
Royalists fear, and it will be bad policy if they
cease to fear; for when they no longer fear,
they will have most reason to fear.
To silence men, is the severest kind of perse
cution. The saints never commit suicide. It
is true, there must be a call ; but it is not from
orders of Councils, that they learn whether they
are called ; it is from the necessity of speaking.
If my letters are condemned at Rome, that
which I have condemned is condemned in
heaven.
The Inquisition and the Society (the Jesuits)
are the two flails of truth.
78. I was asked, first of all, whether I did
not repent of having written the Provincial
Letters. I replied that, far from repenting, if
I had to write them over again, I would make
them still more severe.
I was asked, secondly, why I mentioned the
names of the authors from whom I took the
detestable propositions I had quoted. I re
plied, if I were in a city where there were twelve
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fountains, and knew for certain, that one of
them was poisoned, I should feel obliged to
warn every one I met with, not to draw water
from it ; and, as my warning might be supposed
to be a mere fiction of the imagination, it
would be also my duty to point out the poisoned
fountain, rather than expose a whole city to
the chance of being poisoned.
In the third place, I was asked, why I em
ployed a style so lively, and tinctured so
strongly with raillery and humour. I replied,
that had I employed the grave style of disserta
tion, none but men of learning would have
read the work ; to whom it would have been of
little service, since they knew at least as much
of the subject as myself. I wished, therefore,
to write in such a manner, that my letters
might be read by females, and men of business,
that they might be apprised of the dangerous
tendency of the maxims and propositions then
so current, which otherwise they might have
been beguiled to receive.
Lastly, I was asked whether I had read all
the authors I cited. I replied, certainly not ;
for had I read them, I should have spent the
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greater ^part of my life in reading very bad
books. However, I had read Escobar through
Ywice ; and as to the rest, I employed some of
my friends to read them : but I had not quoted
a single passage, without having read it myself
in the author from whom it was taken; nor
without having examined the subject in dis
cussing which it was introduced, and read the
context both before and after it, that I might
not make the blunder of citing an objection
instead of a reply, which would have been
equally disgraceful and unjust.
79. The arithmetical machine produces
effects approaching more nearly to thought,
than any actions of the inferior animals ; but it
performs nothing that will allow us to say it
has a will like that of animals.
80. Some authors, when talking of their
works, say, my book, my commentary, my
history, etc. They observe their neighbours
have a house of their own, and always "my
house" at their tongue's end. I recommend
them to say, our book, our commentary, etc.,
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because in general they contain much more of
what belongs to other people than to them
selves.
81. Christian piety annihilates self; worldly
politeness disguises and suppresses it.
82. If my heart were as poor as my under
standing, I should be happy : for I am firmly
persuaded, that poverty is a great instrument
for salvation.
83. I have remarked one thing; that, how
ever poor persons may be, they always leave
something behind at death.
84. I love poverty, because Jesus Christ
loved it. I value wealth, because it affords
the means of assisting the unfortunate. I
keep my word to every one. I return not evil
for evil ; but wish my enemies a condition like
my own, in which they would receive little
good or evil from their fellow-men. I aim at
being always true, sincere, and faithful, to all
men. I have a peculiar tenderness for those
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to whom God has united me most intimately.
Whether I am alone, or in the presence of my
fellow-men, in all my actions I have regard to
that God who will judge them, and to whom I
consecrate them all. These are my principles,
and I will bless my Redeemer all my life, who
has implanted them in my soul, and who, of
a man full of weakness, unhappiness, con
cupiscence, pride, and ambition, has made a
man exempt from all these evils, by the power
of His grace, when there was nothing in myself
but misery and horror.
85. Sickness is a state natural to Christians ;
for then they are, as they ought always to be,
in a state of suffering, of privation of all
sensual good and pleasure, free from those
passions which molest them in society, without
ambition, without avarice, and in the continual
expectation of death. Is it not in this state
that Christians ought to go through life ? And
is it not a great blessing to find ourselves, by
necessity, in a state, such as we ought always
to be in, and in which our only duty is humble
and peaceable submission ? For this reason,
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the only favour I ask of God is, that He would
place me in such a state.
86. It is a strange thing, that men long to
comprehend the first principles of all things,
and to know every thing ! It would be im
possible, doubtless, to form such a project,
without a presumption, or a capacity, unlimited
as nature itself.
87. Nature has its perfections, to show that
it is the image of God ; and its defects, to
show that it is only His image.
88. Men are so necessarily foolish, that it
would only be a new freak of folly to pretend
to be free from folly.
89. Take away probability, and you can no
longer please the world : only let there be
probability, and you cannot displease it.
90. The zeal of the pious to seek and practise
excellence, would be useless, if probability was
exchanged for certainty.
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91. For a man to become a saint, grace is
absolutely necessary: he who doubts this,
knows not what it is, to be either a man or a
saint.
92. People like certainty : they are pleased
that the Pope should be infallible in matters
of faith, and that the grave Divines should be
unerring in their practice, in order to feel
confidence in them.
93. We are not to judge of the Pope by
some expressions of the Fathers, as the Greeks
said in council ; (a most important rule cer
tainly ! ) but by the actions of the Church, and
the Fathers, and by the Canons.
94. The Pope is chief. What other in
dividual is known by all ? What other is
recognised by all, having powers to influence
the whole body, because he commands the
main vessel which keeps up the general
circulation.
95. It is heretical to explain the word all,
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omnes, as meaning universal constantly; and
it is equally heretical, not to give it that
meaning sometimes. "Bibite ex hoc omnes.
Drink ye all of it : " the Huguenots are heretical,
in explaining it in the universal sense. "In
quo omnes peccaverunt. In whom all have
sinned : " the Huguenots are heretical, in
excepting the children of believers. We
must, then, follow the fathers and tradition,
since there is danger of heresy on either
side.
96. The least motion affects all nature ; the
whole ocean is altered by a pebble. Thus in
grace, the least action in its consequences,
affects every other. Every thing, therefore, is
important.
97. All men naturally hate themselves. We
take advantage, as we can, of concupiscence,
to promote the public good. But it is only a
pretence, and a false image of charity: in
reality, it is nothing but hatred. The wicked
ness of man's heart (figmentum malum) is only
covered ; it is not taken away.
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98. If any one is disposed to assert that
man is too insignificant a being to be worthy
of divine communications, how great must
such a person's capacity be, to be able to
decide the point !
99. It is unworthy of God to unite Himself
to man in his misery: but it is not unworthy
of God to extricate him from his misery.
100. How incomprehensible ! what absurdi
ties ! Sinners purified, without repentance ;
the righteous sanctified, without the grace of
Jesus Christ ; God, without power over the
human will ; predestination, without mystery ;
a Redeemer, without certainty !
101. Unity, multitude. Considering the
Church as unity, the Pope is the chief of it, as
a whole. Considering it as a multitude, the Pope
is only one part of it. A multitude which is not
reduced to unity, is confusion. Unity, in which
the multitude have no influence, is tyranny.
102. God employs no miracles in the ordinary
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administration of His Church. This would be
strange, if infallibility resided in an individual ;
but as it is in a multitude, this is natural : thus
the divine operation is concealed under the
course of nature, as in all His works.
103. That the Christian religion is unique,
is no argument against its truth. On the
contrary, this is one evidence that it is true.
104. In a republic (Venice, for example) it
would be a great enormity to attempt to intro
duce a king, and to oppress liberty among a
people to whom God has given it; but in a
state where monarchy is established, the regard
due to the regal authority cannot be violated,
without a species of sacrilege, since the power
God has attached to it, is not simply an image
of His own, but a portion of it ; so that it cannot
be opposed without resisting the ordinance of
God. Moreover, civil war, which is a conse
quence of such opposition, being one of the
most flagrant violations of the law of love to
our neighbour, it is scarcely possible to express
too strongly the heinousness of such a crime.
203
.
THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
The first Christians have left us a lesson not to
revolt, but to endure with patience, when
princes violate their duties.
I have as great an aversion to this crime as
to assassination and highway robbery ; there is
nothing more contrary to my natural disposition,
and to which I feel less temptation.
105. Eloquence is the art of speaking things
in such a manner, first, that those to whom
they are spoken may understand them without
difficulty, and with pleasure : secondly, that
they may feel themselves interested, so that
their self-love shall induce them more readily
to reflect on the subject. It consists in a cor
respondence which the speaker attempts to
establish between the hearts and minds of his
hearers, on the one hand, and his own thoughts
and expressions, on the other : this supposes
that he has well studied the human heart, to
understand all its springs of action, and then
to find out those trains of thought, and turns
of expression, that will suit it. He must put
himself in the place of his hearers, and try,
on his own heart, the edge of his discourse,
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to see if they are suited to each other, and
whether he may feel assured, that his hearers
will be, as it were, forced to surrender them
selves. He must confine himself, as much as
possible, within the bounds of simplicity and
nature, and not attempt to make what is little,
great, or what is great, little. It is not enough
that a thing is beautiful ; it must be appropriate
to the subject, so that there shall be nothing
redundant, nothing deficient.
Eloquence is a picture of thought ; and those
who, having drawn the thought, endeavour to
add something, make a piece, instead of a
portrait.
106. Divine Revelation is a science, not of
the understanding, but of the heart. It is in
telligible only to those who have a right heart.
The veil which was over the Scriptures for the
Jews, is also there for Christians ; Charity is
not only the object of divine revelation ; it is
also the entrance to it.
107. If certainty were the only rational
ground of action, men could never embrace
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religion ; for it is not certain. But how many
actions are performed on an uncertainty, such
as travels, battles, etc. etc. If certainty alone
will satisfy us, we shall do nothing, for nothing
is certain ; and, after all, there is more certainty
of the truth of religion, than that we shall live
till to-morrow : for that is not certain ; but it is
certainly possible that we shall not live so long.
Can a similar assertion be made respecting
religion ? It is not certain that it is true ; but
who shall dare affirm that it is certainly possible
that it is not true ? Yet when we labour for
the morrow, and at an uncertainty, we act
rationally.
108. Scientific inventions advance from age
to age. The virtue and the vice in the world
generally remain the same.
109. A wise man will have some thoughts on
the back-ground, by which to judge of every
thing; but in society, he will use the current
mode of talking.
110. Force is the queen of the world, and
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not opinion ; but opinion is that which makes
use of force.
111. Thoughts come by chance, and are lost
by chance ; there is no art either of preserving
or acquiring them.
112. According to you, the Church is not to
judge of what is internal, because that belongs
to God, nor of what is external, because God
penetrates into the internal ; thus, by not
allowing it to judge of character, you retain
in the Church the most abandoned men,
even those who are so notoriously bad, that
Jewish synagogues, and the schools of Pagan
philosophers would have abhorred and ex
communicated them.
113. Nowadays, whoever wishes is made
a priest, as it was in the time of Jero
boam.
114. A multitude not reduced to unity, is
confusion. A unity not dependent on the
multitude, is despotism.
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115. Men consult only the ear, because they
want courage.
116. In all our intercourse, we should be
able to say to those who are offended, " Why
do you complain ? "
117. Children who are terrified by a counten
ance they have disfigured, act like children;
but how comes it to pass that the being who is
so feeble when an infant, is so courageous in
latter life ? It is not so, he only changes his
weakness to other objects.
118. It is incomprehensible that God should
exist, and incomprehensible that He should
not exist; that a soul should be united to a
body, and that we should have no soul ; that
the world should be created, and that it should
not be created ; that original sin should exist,
and that it should not exist, etc.
119. Atheists ought to have the clearest
proofs of their opinions, but it is not perfectly
clear that the soul is material.
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120. No men are so credulous as unbelievers ;
they will believe the miracles of Vespasian, in
order to disbelieve those of Moses.
121. On the philosophy of Des Cartes. —
We may say, in general, this is produced by
figure and motion — for that is true ; but to
say what figure and motion, and to compose a
machine, is ridiculous, for it is useless, un
certain, and troublesome. And if it were true,
we should not reckon all the philosophy in the
world worth an hour's anxiety.
SD 209
DETACHED MORAL THOUGHTS
1. Good maxims are very current ; but their
right application is neglected. For instance,
no one doubts that life itself should be hazarded
for the public good : and by many this is put
in practice ; but men will scarcely ever venture
so much for the cause of Religion. An in
equality of condition is absolutely necessary;
but this being agreed upon, occasions the
exercise not only of supreme dominion, but of
the most absolute tyranny. The mind requires
a little relaxation : this is very true, but often
perverted into an apology for unbounded
dissipation. Certain limits may be imagined,
but in actual life there are no limits ; the laws
attempt to impose them, but men's minds will
not submit to their control.
2. The commands of reason are far more
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imperious than those of a master ; for in dis
obeying the one, a man is unhappy ; in disobey
ing the other, he is a fool.
J 3. Why do you murder me ? A strange
question ! do you not live on the other side of
the water ? If you lived on this side, my good
Sir, I should indeed be an assassin for killing
you ; but you live on the other side : I am
acting, therefore, like a man of honour, and
everything is as it should be.
4. Men of irregular lives charge the sober
with acting unnaturally, but imagine that
they themselves act agreeably to nature : thus,
when a ship gets under weigh, the people on
shore appear to be receding. The same ex
pressions are used by all, a fixed point is
necessary to decide. The port answers this
purpose for the passengers ; but where shall
we find a similar point in morals ?
5. As fashion regulates the agreeable, so it
determines what is just. If mankind really
understood justice, that most general of all
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maxims would never have been established :
That every one should follow the manners of
his own country. The lustre of real equity
would have compelled the homage of all nations,
and legislators would never have taken for
their model, instead of this unchangeable recti
tude, the fancies and whims of Persia and
Germany. Its authority would have been
acknowledged in all kingdoms, and through
every age.
6. Justice is that which is established ; and
therefore, all our established laws are con
sidered just without examination, simply be
cause they are established.
7. The only universal rules, for ordinary
things, are the laws of a country, and in other
cases, the majority. Why is this ? It is
because the power is there. Hence kings,
who have power from other sources, are not
regulated by the majorities in their cabinet.
8. No doubt an equality of goods is just;
but as it is impossible to make men follow the
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dictates of justice by suasion, we must make
them submit to force. Since it is impossible
for justice alone to regulate men's minds
without external force, physical power is
legalized ; so that justice and force being
combined, peace, the greatest of all blessings,
is the result. Summum jus, summa injuria.
To decide by majorities is the best method,
because it is something visible, and includes
the power of compelling obedience ; yet, after
all, it is a mode of deliberation adapted to
inferior minds.
If it were possible, we should put force into
the hands of justice ; but as force will not
suffer itself to be managed as we like, because
it is palpable, while justice is an immaterial
quality, to be disposed of according to our
fancy, we put justice into the hands of force ;
arid that which men are forced to observe,
assumes the name of Justice.
x 9. It is just to obey what is just ; it is !
necessary to obey what is strongest. Justice
without force is powerless ; power without
justice is tyrannical. Justice without force
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will be thwarted, as long as wicked men exist ;
force without justice will be reprobated by all
the good. Therefore, justice and force must
be joined, in order that what is just may be
powerful, and that what is powerful may be
just.
Justice is open to dispute ; force is palpable
and indisputable. Thus we have only to add
force to justice. Unable to make what is just
to be powerful, we must make what is powerful
to be just.
10. It is dangerous to tell the people that
the laws are not just ; for their obedience
depends on the contrary belief. For this
reason, they must be told, at the same time,
that they must obey, because they are the laws ;
as our superiors must be obeyed, not because
they are just, but because they are our
superiors. If they fall in with these views,
all sedition is prevented. This is all that
properly belongs to the definition of Justice.
11. It is well that the laws and customs of
a state should be obeyed, simply because they
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THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
are established, and that the people should
understand that this makes them just. In
this case, they will never disown their authority ;
but if it is attempted to assert their justice on
any other grounds, it will easily be rendered
questionable ; and nothing more is wanted to
dispose the people to revolt.
12. When the question to be decided is,
whether a war should be made, in which
thousands will perish, and numbers of Spaniards
be condemned to die, all depends on the will
of one man, arid he, too, an interested in
dividual; the right of decision ought to be
vested in a third unbiassed party.
13. "I am handsome, therefore I ought to
be feared " ; "I am strong, therefore I ought to
be loved," etc. Speeches of this kind are false
arid tyrannical. Tyranny consists in wishing
to obtain, by one method, what can be obtained
only by another. There are different orders of
sentiment suited to the various kinds of excel
lence. Love is appropriate to the agreeable,
fear to power, and belief to knowledge. There
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THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
is a propriety in thus exercising the feelings,
and it would be unjust to withhold them, or to
fix them upon other subjects. It is equally
erroneous and tyrannical to say, " Such a one
is not strong, therefore I will not love him ; he
is not clever, therefore I will not fear him."
Tyranny consists in the desire of universal and
irregular dominion.
14. Some vices adhere to us only by means
of others ; they are like so many branches
which fall when the trunk is cut down.
15. When a malignant passion can support
its pretensions by reason, its violence is in
creased, and it never fails to set forth the
claims of reason with the utmost force. When
austerity or self-denial is not regulated by a
regard to real good, and we are obliged to
return to the dictates of nature, that also
operates with greater power, owing to the
revulsion.
16. The exhilaration produced by amusement
is not happiness, for it arises from what is
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extraneous to ourselves : it is therefore depen
dent on circumstances, and consequently liable
to be disturbed by a thousand accidents and
unavoidable misfortunes.
17. Great enlargement of mind, not less than
extreme limitation of faculty, is charged with
folly. Nothing obtains currency in the world
but mediocrity. The multitude have estab
lished this order of things, and are on the alert
to let no one escape, who attempts to break
through at either end. As for myself, I have
no hankering after distinction, and am content
to remain just where society chooses to place
me ; or if I show any dislike to the lower end,
it arises not from the inferiority of the situation,
but because it is one of the extremes : I should
be quite as reluctant to occupy the upper end.
To pass beyond the medium, is to go out of the
sphere of humanity ; true greatness of mind
consists in keeping within it ; though it is too
often imagined to consist in going out of it.
]/ 18. In order to gain the reputation of being ^
a poet, a man must put on the badge of a poet ;
2E 217
THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
or to rank high in the mathematics, he must
put on the badge of a mathematician. But
men of sense, who are free from all such vanity,
wear no particular badges: the reputation of
an embroiderer or a poet is all one to them.
They are not called poets or geometricians,
though they can decide on the merits of those
who profess to be such. Their character is an
enigma to the rest of the world. When they
mix with society, they readily join in whatever
happens to be the topic of conversation. They
make no unnecessary display of their talents,
but wait till an occasion calls them into action,
and then their superiority appears : with such
persons, it is equally in character that their
diction should not excite attention when the
subject does not require eloquence, and that it
should attract our notice, when the occasion
admits of eloquence. It is poor commenda
tion to say of a man, as he enters a room, that
he is a clever poet; and an unfavourable
indication of his abilities when he is appealed
to only respecting a set of verses. Man is a
being full of wants, and likes no person so well
as those who can satisfy them. Such a one,
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THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
they tell me, is a good mathematician ; but
what have I to do with mathematics ? I hear
another applauded as a military tactician ; but
I detest war, and wish to live in peace with the
whole world. What we want then, is a man of
practical good sense, who can help us out in
the daily occurrences of life.
19. When in health, we cannot imagine how
we should behave if we were sick : but when
sickness comes, it induces us to take medicine
readily. The passions which agitated us in
the time of health, and the desires after social
amusements which were then so vivid, subside
and vanish under the pressure of disease.
Nature bestows upon us passions and desires
suited to the change in our condition. We
ought not therefore to blame her for the
apprehensions we are prone to indulge : they
are the offspring of our own fancy, which
connects with the state in which we are, the
feelings of the state in which we are not.
20. Discourses on humility cherish pride in
the vain-glorious, but promote humility in the
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THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL
humble ; and just in the same way sceptical
discussions increase the confidence of the
dogmatic. Few persons talk of humility in a
humble spirit, or of chastity with a chaste
mind, or of doubt with hesitation. We are
made up of falsehood, duplicity and contra
diction. We disguise ourselves from others,
and even conceal ourselves from our own view.
21. Virtuous actions which have been con
cealed from notoriety are the most estimable.
Whenever I meet with such in history, they
delight me exceedingly. But then they have
not been quite concealed, or they would not
have been on record ; and as far as this cir
cumstance goes, it diminishes their merit: it
would have been more virtuous to have re
solved to conceal them entirely.
22. A jester is a contemptible character.
23. Selfishness is hateful; therefore those
who do not renounce it, but are satisfied
simply with concealing it, are always hateful.
"By no means," I hear someone say, "for if
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we treat every one with courtesy, they have no
just ground for hating us." I grant this would
be true, if the only thing hateful in self-love,
were the uneasiness its indulgence occasions
us. But if I hate it because it is unjust,
aiming as it does to be the centre of every
thing, there is not a moment in which I can
cease to hate it. In a word, selfishness has
two qualities ; it is essentially unjust, because
it aims at becoming the centre of every thing ;
and it is offensive to others, because it would
make them its slaves : for every one in whom
self is a leading principle is the enemy, and
would be the tyrant of the human race. Your
courtesy, I allow, checks the injurious opera
tion of selfishness, but does not alter the
injustice of its nature ; do what you will, you
cannot render it an object of approbation to
those who hate injustice ; though the unjust
may be pleased that they no longer meet it as
an enemy : thus you continue unjust yourself,
and please none but those who are likewise
unjust.
24. I do not admire a man who possesses
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one virtue in perfection, unless he possesses,
at the same time, in an equal degree, the
opposite virtue ; and such was Epaminondas,
in whom the greatest valour was combined
with the greatest benignity. Where this is not
the case, the character, instead of rising, sinks.
Mental greatness is shown not by being at one
extremity of the scale, but by touching both
ends at once, and filling up the interval too.
This, however, may be nothing more than the
quick transition of the mind from one extreme
to the other, so that it shall be really only in
one point at any given time, like a firebrand
which, by a rapid gyration, presents the
appearance of a circle of flame ; but if so, it
indicates the agility, if not the comprehensive
ness of the mind.
25. If our present condition were a happy
one, there would be no occasion to shun the
thoughts of it. Trifles console us, because
trifles afflict us.
26. I used to spend much of my time in the
study of the abstract sciences, but I lost my
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relish for them, when I found so few with whom
I could exchange thoughts respecting them.
As soon as I began the study of Man, I saw
that these subjects were not suited to his
nature, and that I had mistaken the best
method of employing my faculties, in attempt
ing to investigate them, much more than others
in remaining ignorant of them : I felt persuaded,
however, that I should have plenty of com
panions in the study of man, which is our
proper study. But here again I have been
mistaken. There are fewer students of human
nature than of Geometry.
27. When all things move at the same rate
(as in a vessel under sail) nothing appears to
move. When a whole community falls into
disorder, individual irregularities are not
observed, because the standard is lost. But
let any one set himself against the general
current of society, and he becomes a fixed
point, from which to measure the aberrations
of the rest.
28. Philosophers have assumed the credit of
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being very ingenious, for the classifications of
their moral systems. But can they explain
why they should use four divisions rather than
six ? Why should they make four cardinal
virtues rather than ten ? Why define virtue
to consist in abstine et sustine (abstain and en
dure) rather than in anything else ? But mark,
say you, a single word contains a whole system.
Yes, but it is of no use unless you explain it ;
and if you proceed to the explanation, and lay
open the precept which includes all others,
that very confusion is produced which you
intended to avoid. In short, as long as moral
precepts are contained in one word, they are
unknown and useless ; and when developed
they reappear in their original confusion.
Nature has constituted each of them separ
ately ; and though we may comprise one within
another, each exists independently of the rest.
Thus all these classifications and technical
phrases have scarcely any use, but to relieve
the memory, and to be a sort of indexes of
their contents.
29. If we wish to reprove a person for his
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good, and to convince him of his mistakes, we
must take notice in what point of view he has
considered the matter in question, and acknow
ledge the correctness of his discernment so far ;
for correct it will generally be, within certain
limits. He will be pleased to find that he was
not altogether in the wrong, and that his mis
takes were only owing to not having surveyed
the subject on all sides. For not to have
noticed everything is not esteemed disgraceful,
but men are reluctant to acknowledge them
selves mistaken in what they have observed :
and perhaps this feeling arises from its being
a fact, that the mind is naturally correct in its
perceptions of what it sees, just as the notices
of the senses are always true.
30. A man's virtues must be measured, not
by his extraordinary efforts, but by his usual
course of action.
31. The great and the little are subject to
the same accidents, the same vexations, and
the same passions ; but the former are near
the circumference of the wheel, the latter are
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at the centre, and are therefore less agitated
by the same movements.
32. We must not take for granted that a man
speaks the truth because he has no interest in
telling a falsehood, for there are those who lie
for the lie's sake.
33. Alexander's continence has had far fewer
imitators than his drunkenness. While no
shame is felt for being less virtuous than he
was, men think themselves excusable if they
are not more vicious. They fancy, that when
they indulge in the vices of the great, they rise
above the vices of the multitude, without
reflecting that the same vices are common to
both. They unite with the great just at the
point where they unite with the multitude ; for
however elevated the former may be, they are
still in contact with the rest of mankind at
some points. They are not suspended in the
air, and dissevered from all connection with
the earth. If they are above us, it is
because their heads are more elevated ; their
feet are as low as our own. They stand on
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the same level, they walk on the same earth,
and by their lower extremities are as de
based as ourselves, as children, or even as
brutes.
34. It is the contest, and not the victory,
which gives us pleasure. We like to see the
combats of animals, but not the victor tearing
the vanquished in pieces. We may ask, what
object can there be excepting the victory ?
Yet when that is gained, our interest in the
whole affair is lost. It is the same in games of
hazard ; it is the same in the investigation of
truth. We are pleased to witness the collision
of opinions, but not to contemplate truth when
discovered ; we behold it with pleasure only in
a militant state. We are not interested by the
things themselves, but by the search for them.
And so there is pleasure in observing the con
flict of two opposite passions ; but when one
gains the mastery, it becomes brute violence.
In dramatic representations, we turn away from
scenes which are placid without uncertainty,
wretched without hope, and full of passion
without refinement.
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35. Men are taught everything excepting
honesty ; and yet nothing is deemed a greater
insult than to suspect a person of a flaw in this
point. So that men make the greatest preten
sions to know the only thing which has never
been taught them.
36. How silly the attempt of Montaigne to
delineate his own character! and that not in
an accidental manner, and contrary to his
own fixed principles, a mistake to which
every one is liable, but in accordance with
his principles, and as his main and principal
design ! For to talk nonsense by accident,
and without reflection, is common enough :
but to take pains to gossip, as he has done,
is intolerable.
37. To utter expressions of pity for the unfor
tunate, does not thwart any natural propensity :
on the contrary, men are well pleased to give
this proof of their humanity, and thus to acquire
a reputation for tenderness by bestowing what
costs them nothing; but such benevolence is
of little value.
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38. Could it have been supposed, that a man
might possess the friendship of the King of
England, the King of Poland, and the Queen
of Sweden, and yet might find it difficult to
obtain a retreat and an asylum ?
39. All objects that come under our notice
have various qualities, and the mind has various
inclinations : nothing is presented to the mind
in a simple state, nor is the mind in a simple
state when it examines any object ; hence we
sometimes laugh and cry at the same thing.
40. The powerful, the beautiful, the witty
and the religious, form distinct classes, and
each is confined within certain limits, beyond
which it can exercise no control. Sometimes,
however, they come into collision : the strong
and the beautiful contend for the mastery;
but most absurdly, for their supremacy is of
different kinds. Self-ignorance leads them to
aim at universal dominion. But nothing can
attain this, not even physical power, which has
no authority in the republic of letters, being
only master of external actions.
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41. Ferox gens nullam esse vitam sine armis
putat. Some men would rather die than live
in a state of peace : others would lose their
lives sooner than go to war. There is no
sentiment of the human mind, which, on some
occasions, will not be held dearer than life,
though the love of that is so strong and so
natural.
42. How difficult is it to submit a literary
work to the judgment of another person, with
out biassing his mind by our very manner of
doing it. If we drop some such expression as
" It seems to me very beautiful ; " or, " It is
rather obscure," we either beguile his imagina
tion into the same sentiment, or prompt him
to adopt the contrary. It would be much
better to say nothing, for then he would form
his own judgment, or at least would judge
according to the mood he happened to be in
and as affected by circumstances, of which we
were not the disposers. After all, our silence
itself will produce some effect, and will be
variously interpreted according to the humour
we happen to be in; some conjecture will be
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formed from our looks and the tones of our
voice. So easy is it to remove the judgment
from its proper basis, or rather so very slight
and unstable is that basis !
43. Montaigne's opinion respecting custom
is just ; as soon as it is really such ; and when
we find it established, it ought to be followed,
without examining whether it is rational or
not, provided it opposes neither natural
right, nor the divine law. The multitude, it
is true, follows custom under the belief of
its justice, or they would soon abandon it :
for men do not like to own subjection to
any thing but reason and justice. Custom,
without this notion, would be looked upon
as tyranny ; whereas the dominion of reason
and justice is no more tyranny than that of
pleasure.
44. The knowledge of external things will
never compensate, in times of affliction, for
ignorance of what relates to our moral being :
but moral wisdom will always compensate for
ignorance of external things.
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45. Time puts an end to our sorrows and
our quarrels, because our characters alter, and
we become as it were different beings. Neither
the offender nor the offended is the same
person. It is like a nation with which all
intercourse has been broken off, but renewed
after a generation or two have passed away.
They are still Frenchmen, but not the same
individuals.
46. What are the features of our condition ?
Inconstancy, weariness, disquietude. If any
one wishes to be thoroughly acquainted with
the vanity of man, he has only to consider the
causes and effects of love. The cause is un je
ne sais quoi, and the effects are terrible. This
je ne sais quoi, such a little thing that we can
scarcely discern its existence, shakes the earth,
agitates princes, and armies, and the whole
human race. If Cleopatra's nose had been a
few lines shorter, the state of the world would
have been changed.
47. It seems to me that Caesar was too old
to set about amusing himself with the conquest
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of the world. This sort of amusement was
suited to Alexander : he was a young man
whose impetuosity it was almost impossible to
restrain ; but Csesar should have been too
sedate for such an enterprise.
48. Fickleness in our pleasures arises from a
sense of the emptiness of those we have tried,
and ignorance of the vanity of the rest.
49. Kings and princes sometimes divert
themselves. If they were always on their
thrones they would soon be tired of them.
Grandeur must be laid aside in order to be
felt.
50. Whatever my state of mind may be, it is
little influenced by the weather. The storm
and the sunshine are within my own breast :
the success or failure of my projects makes
scarcely any difference. Sometimes I en
deavour to rise superior to misfortune, and the
glory of the attempt makes it pleasurable ;
while at other times, in the midst of prosperity,
I am indifferent or disgusted.
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51. While putting my thoughts on paper,
they sometimes escape me ; but this reminds
me of my weakness, which I am so apt to
forget, and affords as much instruction as the
thoughts could do that I have lost ; for I aim
above all things to know my own nothingness.
52. It is very striking to observe, that there
are in the world men who have forsworn all
the laws of God and nature, and yet observe
others of their own making with the utmost
scrupulosity : highwaymen for example.
53. " This dog is mine," says the child of a
poor man : " this is my place in the sunshine : "
in such expressions we may detect the germ
and image of a tyranny that would extend
itself over the whole earth.
54. "Have the goodness to excuse the
remark, but your manners are awkward."
Were it not for this apology, I would not
have taken what you said as an affront. Let
me tell you nothing is so offensive as an
apology.
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55. People in general suppose that Plato
and Aristotle always appeared in full dress,
with a grave and philosophic air. Instead of
this, they were sociable beings, who could
enjoy themselves with their friends like other
people : and when they wrote their treatises
on law and politics, it was to amuse and divert
themselves, and formed the least philosophic
and serious part of their lives. Their philo
sophical character was shown much more in
living without luxury and ostentation.
56. Men are prone to indulge wishes of evil :
not against the unfortunate, but against those
whom they behold in the pride of wealth : we
shall be mistaken if we form a different
opinion.
Martial's epigram on the one-eyed is worth
less, because it suggests no consolation to
those who are in that unfortunate situation,
and serves only to display the author's wit:
every thing of that sort is contemptible.
Ambitiosa recidet ornamenta. A writer should
study to please men of benevolence and genuine
tenderness, not the unkindly and misanthropic.
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57. I know not what to reply to compliments
of this sort : " I have given you a great deal of
trouble ; I fear I shall fatigue you : I am afraid
this will be tedious : " — such speeches either
embarrass or provoke me.
58. A sincere friend is so valuable an ac
quisition, even for men of the highest rank in
order to guard their reputation and support
their interests in their absence, that they
should spare no pains to obtain one. But let
them be very careful in their choice ; for if
they expend their efforts on a vain fool, he will
be of no service, whatever he may say on their
behalf, for no one will respect his opinion : he
will be afraid to open his mouth for them,
when he finds himself the weakest ; and as his
character possesses no independence, it will
not be surprising if he should join the rest of
the company in abusing them.
59. Do you wish that men should speak well
of you ? Do not say so.
60. Let not men ridicule those who are
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honoured on account of their official situation ;
but ask themselves whether they love any one
excepting for adventitious qualities. All men
naturally hate one another. I venture to assert,
that if every thing were known which men say
of each other, there would not be four friends in
the whole world. To be convinced of this, only
consider the quarrels produced by tale-bearing.
61. It is more easy to suffer death without
thinking of it, than to think of it when in no
danger of suffering it.
62. That a thing so visible as the vanity of
the world should be so little apprehended, as
to make the assertion, that it is folly to seek
after its grandeur, appear strange and striking,
is truly astonishing.
He who does not see the vanity of the world
must be vain himself. And who does not see
it, excepting young people who are taken up
with diversions, regardless of the future ?
But take away their diversions, and you see
them pine away with listlessness ; they then
have a sense of their own nothingness, without
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understanding it : for this is wretchedness
indeed, to suffer intolerable sadness, as soon
as we are forced to self-reflection, and have no
object to divert our thoughts.
63. In all human things there is a mixture
of truth and falsehood. Essential truth is
different : it is purely and altogether true.
The alloy of falsehood debases and destroys it.
Nothing is true, understanding by the term,
unmixed truth. Murder is bad. Yes : for we
know very well what is bad and false. But
can any one say what is good ? Celibacy ? I
say it is not good, for it would bring the world
to an end. Is marriage good ? No ; con
tinence is far better. Is it right never to put
persons to death ? No ; for the disorders of
society would be horrible, and the wicked
would kill the good. But is it right to kill?
No ; for this would destroy nature. We
possess neither what is true nor what is useful
excepting partially and mixed with what is
pernicious and false.
64. Evil may easily be met with, for its forms
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are infinite ; but good is uniform. There is,
however, a certain kind of evil as difficult to
find as what is generally called good : and men
often mistake this particular evil for a good.
Indeed it requires an extraordinary capacity
to attain such evil.
65. The ties which secure the regard of one
class of men to another, are, generally speaking,
ties of necessity : for a distinction of ranks is un
avoidable. All men are ambitious of dominion,
but only some possess the power. But the ties
which secure the respect of individuals to one
another, are ties of the imagination.
66. We are so unfortunate that we cannot
take pleasure in any pursuit but on the condi
tion of being chagrined if we are unsuccessful ;
which may be occasioned by a thousand acci
dents, and happens every hour. Whoever
should discover the secret of enjoying a good
without being affected by the contrary evil, will
have gained a great point.
67. We must not forget our own nature ; we
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are body as well as spirit, and hence pure
demonstration is not the instrument of per
suasion. How very few things are there
demonstrable ! Arguments act only on the
mind. Custom adds strength to argument ; it
enlists the senses on its side, which impercep
tibly carry the understanding along with them.
Who can demonstrate that the sun will rise
to-morrow, or that we shall die ? yet what is
more universally believed ? Custom persuades
men of it; this it is which makes so many
Turks and Pagans, this makes soldiers and
artisans. It is true we must not appeal to
custom when we are in quest of truth, but we
must have recourse to it as soon as the under
standing sees where the truth lies, that our
minds may be thoroughly imbued with belief,
of itself so volatile a thing ; for to keep the
arguments constantly before us would be end
less trouble. We must acquire a more easy
belief, and such is that of custom, which, with
out violence, without art, without argument,
produces belief, and so inclines all our faculties,
that it costs us no effort to retain it. The two
parts of our frame must act in unison ; the
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mind convinced by those arguments which
it suffices to have understood once in our
lives, and the senses persuaded by habit,
and not allowed to allure us in a contrary
direction.
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1901
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Pascal, Blaise
Thoughts on religion and
philosophy
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