Pensees. Blaise Pascal.

Pensées
Blaise Pascal
New York: EP Dutton & Co. Inc.
(1623-1662). Published in 1844. 1958.

Why read it? The first half of Pascal’s Pensées is profound. At one point, I considered Pascal’s Pensées to be the counterpoint to Islam’s Koran, “the only book needed in the world.” The second half of the book, arguing that the Catholic Church is the answer to the conundrums and dilemmas of humanity, is interesting, but less profound.

The first part of the book is an insightful reflection on the puzzling nature of humanity. Humanity is full of contradictions. One can only understand the nature of humanity by accepting the doctrine of Original Sin. The concept of Original Sin—blaming future generations for the sin of a single person in the past—might seem unfair when compared to human concepts of justice, but how else explain the nature of man, part God and part beast? Each point in Pascal’s reasoning is worthy of careful, concentrated, extended thought on human nature. I concluded this first portion of the book by thinking of only one other author, Shakespeare, with as comprehensive view of humanity.

Some sample ideas from the book: One man [Adam] broke the bonds with God; another man [Christ] renewed those bonds. Everyone wants admirers; even those who write against everyone’s having admirers want the admiration from others of having written it, and people who have read it want the praise and awe from others for having read it. I have two choices in the afterlife: annihilation or the hands of an angry God. Antiquity is not proof of truth. Art can be found in mathematics and medicine as well as in poetry. “Cleopatra’s nose: had it been shorter, the whole aspect of the world would have been altered.”

Only the Catholic religion urges men to hate themselves. Everything changes. “…in Jesus Christ all the contradictions are reconciled.” The paradox of Christ: “That the Christ should be glorious, mighty , strong, and yet so poor that He would not be recognized, nor taken for what He is, but rejected and slain.” The Church has had as much difficulty showing that Christ was man as well as God. The contradictions of Christ: “A God humiliated, even to the death on the cross, a Messiah triumphing over death by his own death.” Only Christianity teaches that man is born in sin.

“Too great length and too great brevity of discourse tend to obscurity; too much truth is paralyzing.” The smallest creature is as complex as the largest. “A hundred contradictions might be true.” To be contradicted does not mean an idea is false; not to be contradicted does not mean an idea is true. The label we put on others probably describes ourselves. “At the last a little earth is thrown upon our head and that is the end forever. " “We are fools to depend upon the society of our fellow men. Wretched as we are, powerless as we are, they will not aid us; we shall die alone. We should therefore act as if we were alone.” One who is eloquent does not make a parade of his eloquence.

Quote: “I set down as a fact that if all men knew what each said of the other, there would not be four friends in the world.”