Pascalian Meditations

The first time I read Blaise Pascal was when a Brother in my school gave me a copy of Pascal's Pensees. Though I cannot participate in the warmth of Pascal's religious passion, some of his beliefs rather neatly summarise the set of disconnected views that I express (in my ironic oblique fashion) every now and then in this blog. Here are some :

(1) "Most of the evils of life arise from man's being unable to sit still in a room".

(2) "I have made this letter longer than usual, because I lack the time to make it short".

(3) "Man finds nothing so intolerable as to be in a state of complete rest, without passions, without occupation, without diversion, without effort. Then he feels his nullity, loneliness, inadequacy, dependence, helplessness, emptiness".

(4) "Man is only a reed, the weakest in nature; but he is a thinking reed. There is no need for the whole universe to take up arms to crush him: a vapor, a drop of water is enough to kill him. But even if the universe were to crush him, man would still be nobler than his slayer, because he knows that he is dying and the advantage the universe has over him. The universe knows nothing of this".