The cause of all human unhappiness

When sometimes I have applied myself to contemplating the diverse activities of men and the dangers and the troubles that they expose themselves to at court or in battle, giving rise to so many quarrels, or passions, or rash and often nefarious enterprises and so forth, I have often said that all human unhappiness comes from one thing alone, the inability to remain quietly in a room. If a man who is wealthy enough to lead an easy existence knew how to find pleasure in remaining at home, he would not leave home to venture onto the seas or besiege a fortress. The only reason why one pays such a high price for a commission in the army is because one would find it unbearable to remain in town. And the only reason why one goes out in search of company and the diversion offered by gambling is because one cannot find pleasure in staying at home. And so on.

Blaise Pascal — Pensees IX,168

The most fragile thing in the world

 Between us and hell or heaven, there is only the interval of life, the most fragile thing in the world.

Blaise Pascal — Pensees XIII,185

Tirany

91. Tyranny is wishing to have by one means something that can only be had by another. We have different duties to different merits: a duty of love to loveliness, a duty of fear to force, a duty of credence to knowledge.We are obliged to fulfill these duties. It is unjust to deny them and unjust to ask for others.

Therefore, these statements are false and tyrannical: "I am handsome, therefore I should be feared. I am strong, therefore I should be loved. I am..."  

And it is similarly false and tyrannical to say: "He is not strong, therefore I will not hold him in esteem. He is not clever, therefore I will not fear him."

92. Tyranny consists in the desire for universal domination outside its order. 

Different jurisdictions — of the strong, of the handsome, of lofty minds, of the pious: each one is master in his sphere and nowhere else, and on occasion comes into contact with the others. The strong and the handsome struggle for domination to no purpose, for the mastery of each is distinct. They do not understand one another. And their error lies in wishing to rule everywhere. Nothing has that power, not even sheer force. It is of no effect in the realm of the learned. It has dominion only over external actions.

Blaise Pascal — Pensees, IV.91,92

Vanity of the world

Whoever does not see the vanity of the world is truly vain himself.

But then, who does not see it, apart from young people who are wholly engrossed in noise, diversion, and thoughts of the future?

But take away their diversion, and you will see them shrivel up with ennui.

Then they feel their nothingness without understanding it, for it is to be truly miserable to be unbearably overcome by sadness as soon as one is reduced to reflecting upon oneself without any form of diversion.

Blaise Pascal — Pensees, III,70

Man’s condition

 Inconstancy, ennui, anxiety.

Blaise Pascal — Pensees, III.58

Vanity

 That something as obvious as the vanity of the world should be so little known and that people should find it strange and surprising to be told that it is foolish to seek honors, that is astounding 

Blaise Pascal — Pensees III,50

Persona

[806] We are not satisfied with the life we have in ourselves and our own being. We want to lead an imaginary life in the eyes of others, and so we try to make an impression. We strive constantly to embellish and preserve our imaginary being, and neglect the real one. And if we are calm, or generous, or loyal, we are anxious to have it known so that we can attach these virtues to our other existence; we prefer to detach them from our real self so as to unite them with the other. We would cheerfully be cowards if that would acquire us a reputation for bravery. How clear a sign of the nullity of our own being that we are not satisfied with one without the other and often exchange one for the other! For anyone who would not die to save his honour would be infamous.

Blaise Pascal - Pensées 

[ Jung approves 😀 ]

Impermanence of self

[802] Time heals pain and quarrels because we change. We are no longer the same persons; neither the offender nor the offended are themselves any more. It is as if one angered a nation and came back to see them after two generations. They are still Frenchmen, but not the same ones.

Blaise Pascal - Pensées 

There is no self

 [688] What is the self?

A man goes to the window to see the people passing by; if I pass by, can I say he went there to see me? No, for he is not thinking of me in particular. But what about a person who loves someone for the sake of her beauty; does he love her? No, for smallpox, which will destroy beauty without destroying the person, will put an end to his love for her.

And if someone loves me for my judgement or my memory, do they love me? me, myself? No, for I could lose these qualities without losing my self. Where then is this self, if it is neither in the body nor the soul? And how can one love the body or the soul except for the sake of such qualities, which are not what makes up the self, since they are perishable? Would we love the substance of a person’s soul, in the abstract, whatever qualities might be in it? That is not possible, and it would be wrong. Therefore we never love anyone, but only qualities.

Let us then stop scoffing at those who win honour through their appointments and offices, for we never love anyone except for borrowed qualities.

Pascal - Pensées 

[ Buddha approves 😀]

The primacy of Will over Mind

[539] There is a universal and essential difference between acts of will and all others.

The will is one of the chief organs of belief, not because it creates belief, but because things are true or false according to the aspect by which we judge them. When the will likes one aspect more than another, it deflects the mind from considering the qualities of the one it does not care to see. Thus the mind, keeping in step with the will, remains looking at the aspect preferred by the will and so judges by what it sees there.

Blaise Pascal - Pensées 

[  Schopenhauer approves 😀  ]

Pascal’s wager

418. [...] Let us the examine this point, and let us say: ‘Either God is or he is not’. But to which view shall we be inclined? Reason cannot decide this question. Infinite chaos separate us. At the far end of this infinite distance a coin is being spun which will come down heads or tails. How will you wager? 

[...]Let us weigh up the gain and the loss involved in calling heads that God exists. Let us asses the two cases: if you win you win everything, if you lose you lose nothing.

[...] I tell you that you will gain even in this life, and that at every step you take along this road you will see that your gain is so certain and your risk so negligible that in the end you will realize that you have wagered on something certain and infinite for which you have paid nothing.

Blaise Pascal - Pensées 

The heart has its reasons of which reason knows nothing

423. The heart has its reasons of which reason knows nothing: we know this in countless ways.

424. It is the heart which perceives God and not the reason. That is what faith is: God perceived by heart, not by he reason. 

Blaise Pascal - Pensées

Wretchedness

70.  If our condition were truly happy we should not need to divert ourselves from thinking about it. 

Blaise Pascal - Pensées

The power of NOW

 47. We never keep to the present. We recall the past; we anticipate the future as if we found it too slow in coming and were trying to hurry it up, or we recall the past as if to stay its too rapid flight. We are so unwise that we wander about in times that do not belong to us, and do not think of the only one that does; so vain that the we dream of times that are not and blindly flee the only one that is. The fact is that the present usually hurts. We thrust it out of sight because it distresses us, and if we find it enjoyable, we are sorry to see it slip away. We try to give it the support of the future, and think how we are going to arrange things over which we have no control for a time we can never be sure of reaching. 

Let each of us examine their thoughts; he will find them wholly concerned with the past or the future. We almost never think of the present, and if we do think of it, it is only to see what light it throws on our plans for the future. The present is never our end. The past and the present are our means, the future alone our end. Thus we never actually live, but hope to live, and since we are always planning how to be happy, it is inevitable that we should never be so.

Blaise Pascal - Pensées

Man’s condition

 24. Inconstancy, boredom, anxiety.

Blaise Pascal - Penseés