Pascal's Pensees Part 25

358

Man is neither angel nor brute, and the unfortunate thing is that he who would act the angel acts the brute.[134]

359

We do not sustain ourselves in virtue by our own strength, but by the balancing of two opposed vices, just as we remain upright amidst two contrary gales. Remove one of the vices, and we fall into the other.

360

What the Stoics propose is so difficult and foolish!

The Stoics lay down that all those who are not at the high degree of wisdom are equally foolish and vicious, as those who are two inches under water.

361

_The sovereign good. Dispute about the sovereign good._--_Ut sis contentus temetipso et ex te nascentibus bonis._[135] There is a contradiction, for in the end they advise suicide. Oh! What a happy life, from which we are to free ourselves as from the plague!

362

_Ex senatus-consultis et plebiscitis_ ...

To ask like pa.s.sages.

363

_Ex senatus-consultis et plebiscitis scelera exercentur._ Sen. 588.[136]

_Nihil tam absurde dici potest quod non dicatur ab aliquo philosophorum._ Divin.[137]

_Quibusdam destinatis sententiis consecrati quae non probant coguntur defendere._ Cic.[138]

_Ut omnium rerum sic litterarum quoque intemperantia laboramus._ Senec.[139]

_Id maxime quemque decet, quod est cujusque suum maxime._[140]

_Hos natura modos primum dedit._[141] Georg.

_Paucis opus est litteris ad bonam mentem._[142]

_Si quando turpe non sit, tamen non est non turpe quum id a mult.i.tudine laudetur._

_Mihi sic usus est, tibi ut opus est facto, fac._[143] Ter.

364

_Rarum est enim ut satis se quisque vereatur._[144]

_Tot circa unum caput tumultuantes deos._[145]

_Nihil turpius quam cognitioni a.s.sertionem praecurrere._ Cic.[146]

_Nec me pudet, ut istos, fateri nescire quid nesciam._[147]

_Melius non incipient._[148]

365

_Thought._--All the dignity of man consists in thought. Thought is therefore by its nature a wonderful and incomparable thing. It must have strange defects to be contemptible. But it has such, so that nothing is more ridiculous. How great it is in its nature! How vile it is in its defects!

But what is this thought? How foolish it is!

366

The mind of this sovereign judge of the world is not so independent that it is not liable to be disturbed by the first din about it. The noise of a cannon is not necessary to hinder its thoughts; it needs only the creaking of a weatherc.o.c.k or a pulley. Do not wonder if at present it does not reason well; a fly is buzzing in its ears; that is enough to render it incapable of good judgment. If you wish it to be able to reach the truth, chase away that animal which holds its reason in check and disturbs that powerful intellect which rules towns and kingdoms. Here is a comical G.o.d! _O ridicolosissimo eroe!_

367

The power of flies; they win battles,[149] hinder our soul from acting, eat our body.

368

When it is said that heat is only the motions of certain molecules, and light the _conatus recedendi_ which we feel,[150] it astonishes us.

What! Is pleasure only the ballet of our spirits? We have conceived so different an idea of it! And these sensations seem so removed from those others which we say are the same as those with which we compare them!

The sensation from the fire, that warmth which affects us in a manner wholly different from touch, the reception of sound and light, all this appears to us mysterious, and yet it is material like the blow of a stone. It is true that the smallness of the spirits which enter into the pores touches other nerves, but there are always some nerves touched.

369

Memory is necessary for all the operations of reason.

370

[Chance gives rise to thoughts, and chance removes them; no art can keep or acquire them.

A thought has escaped me. I wanted to write it down. I write instead, that it has escaped me.]