A trifle consoles us because a trifle upsets us.
Man’s condition: inconstancy, boredom, anxiety.
A warlike people who think life is not worth living if one cannot bear arms. They prefer death to peace, others prefer death to war.
Any opinion can be preferred to life, which seems so natural to love dearly.
Men spend their time chasing a ball or a hare; it is the very sport of kings.
It is not good to be too free .
It is not good to have all one needs.
If our condition were truly happy we should not need to divert ourselves from thinking about it.
One must know oneself . Even if that doesn’t help in finding truth, at least it helps in running one’s life, and nothing is more proper.
Man’s greatness comes from knowing he is wretched: a tree does not know it is wretched.
Thus it is wretched to know that one is wretched , but there is greatness in knowing one is wretched.
We are so presumptuous that we should like to be known all over the world even by people who will only come when we are no more.Such is our vanity that good opinion of half a dozen of the people around us gives us pleasure and satisfaction.
Pascal
From Pensees
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