Pascal's Pensées
It is dangerous to make man see too clearly his equality with the brutes
without showing him his greatness. It is also dangerous to make him see
his greatness too clearly, apart from his vileness. It is still more
dangerous to leave him in ignorance of both. But it is very advantageous
to show him both. Man must not think that he is on a level either with
the brutes or with the angels, nor must he be ignorant of both sides of
his nature; but he must know both.
419
I will not allow man to depend upon himself, or upon another, to the end
that being without a resting-place and without repose ...
420
If he exalt himself, I humble him; if he humble himself, I exalt him;
and I always contradict him, till he understands that he is an
incomprehensible monster.
421
I blame equally those who choose to praise man, those who choose to
blame him, and those who choose to amuse themselves; and I can only
approve of those who seek with lamentation.
422
It is good to be tired and wearied by the vain search after the true
good, that we may stretch out our arms to the Redeemer.
423
_Contraries. After having shown the vileness and the greatness of
man._--Let man now know his value. Let him love himself, for there is in
him a nature capable of good; but let him not for this reason love the
vileness which is in him. Let him despise himself, for this capacity is
barren; but let him not therefore despise this natural capacity. Let him
hate himself, let him love himself; he has within him the capacity of
knowing the truth and of being happy, but he possesses no truth, either
constant or satisfactory.
I would then lead man to the desire of finding truth; to be free from
passions, and ready to follow it where he may find it, knowing how much
his knowledge is obscured by the passions. I would indeed that he should
hate in himself the lust which determined his will by itself, so that it
may not blind him in making his choice, and may not hinder him when he
has chosen.
424
All these contradictions, which seem most to keep me from the knowledge
of religion, have led me most quickly to the true one.
SECTION VII
MORALITY AND DOCTRINE
425
_Second part.--That man without faith cannot know the true good, nor
justice._
All men seek happiness. This is without exception. Whatever different
means they employ, they all tend to this end.[159] The cause of some
going to war, and of others avoiding it, is the same desire in both,
attended with different views. The will never takes the least step but
to this object. This is the motive of every action of every man, even of
those who hang themselves.
And yet after such a great number of years, no one without faith has
reached the point to which all continually look. All complain, princes
and subjects, noblemen and commoners, old and young, strong and weak,
learned and ignorant, healthy and sick, of all countries, all times, all
ages, and all conditions.
A trial so long, so continuous, and so uniform, should certainly
convince us of our inability to reach the good by our own efforts. But
example teaches us little. No resemblance is ever so perfect that there
is not some slight difference; and hence we expect that our hope will
not be deceived on this occasion as before. And thus, while the present
never satisfies us, experience dupes us, and from misfortune to
misfortune leads us to death, their eternal crown.
What is it then that this desire and this inability proclaim to us, but
that there was once in man a true happiness of which there now remain to
him only the mark and empty trace, which he in vain tries to fill from
all his surroundings, seeking from things absent the help he does not
obtain in things present? But these are all inadequate, because the
infinite abyss can only be filled by an infinite and immutable object,
that is to say, only by God Himself.
He only is our true good, and since we have forsaken Him, it is a
strange thing that there is nothing in nature which has not been
serviceable in taking His place; the stars, the heavens, earth, the
elements, plants, cabbages, leeks, animals, insects, calves, serpents,
fever, pestilence, war, famine, vices, adultery, incest. And since man
has lost the true good, everything can appear equally good to him, even
his own destruction, though so opposed to God, to reason, and to the
whole course of nature.
Some seek good in authority, others in scientific research, others in
pleasure. Others, who are in fact nearer the truth, have considered it
necessary that the universal good, which all men desire, should not
consist in any of the particular things which can only be possessed by
one man, and which, when shared, afflict their possessor more by the
want of the part he has not, than they please him by the possession of
what he has. They have learned that the true good should be such as all
can possess at once, without diminution and without envy, and which no
one can lose against his will. And their reason is that this desire
being natural to man, since it is necessarily in all, and that it is
impossible not to have it, they infer from it ...
426
True nature being lost, everything becomes its own nature; as the true
good being lost, everything becomes its own true good.
427
Man does not know in what rank to place himself. He has plainly gone
astray, and fallen from his true place without being able to find it
again. He seeks it anxiously and unsuccessfully everywhere in
impenetrable darkness.
428
If it is a sign of weakness to prove God by nature, do not despise
Scripture; if it is a sign of strength to have known these
contradictions, esteem Scripture.
429
The vileness of man in submitting himself to the brutes, and in even
worshipping them.
430
_For Port Royal. The beginning, after having explained the
incomprehensibility._--The greatness and the wretchedness of man are so
evident that the true religion must necessarily teach us both that there
is in man some great source of greatness, and a great source of
wretchedness. It must then give us a reason for these astonishing
contradictions.
In order to make man happy, it must prove to him that there is a God;
that we ought to love Him; that our true happiness is to be in Him, and
our sole evil to be separated from Him; it must recognise that we are
full of darkness which hinders us from knowing and loving Him; and that
thus, as our duties compel us to love God, and our lusts turn us away
from Him, we are full of unrighteousness. It must give us an explanation
of our opposition to God and to our own good. It must teach us the
remedies for these infirmities, and the means of obtaining these
remedies. Let us therefore examine all the religions of the world, and
see if there be any other than the Christian which is sufficient for
this purpose.
Shall it be that of the philosophers, who put forward as the chief good,
the good which is in ourselves? Is this the true good? Have they found
the remedy for our ills? Is man's pride cured by placing him on an
equality with God? Have those who have made us equal to the brutes, or
the Mahommedans who have offered us earthly pleasures as the chief good
even in eternity, produced the remedy for our lusts? What religion,
then, will teach us to cure pride and lust? What religion will in fact
teach us our good, our duties, the weakness which turns us from them,
the cause of this weakness, the remedies which can cure it, and the
means of obtaining these remedies?
All other religions have not been able to do so. Let us see what the
wisdom of God will do.
"Expect neither truth," she says, "nor consolation from men. I am she
who formed you, and who alone can teach you what you are. But you are
now no longer in the state in which I formed you. I created man holy,
innocent, perfect. I filled him with light and intelligence. I
communicated to him my glory and my wonders. The eye of man saw then the
majesty of God. He was not then in the darkness which blinds him, nor
subject to mortality and the woes which afflict him. But he has not been
able to sustain so great glory without falling into pride. He wanted to
make himself his own centre, and independent of my help. He withdrew
himself from my rule; and, on his making himself equal to me by the
desire of finding his happiness in himself, I abandoned him to himself.
And setting in revolt the creatures that were subject to him, I made
them his enemies; so that man is now become like the brutes, and so
estranged from me that there scarce remains to him a dim vision of his
Author. So far has all his knowledge been extinguished or disturbed! The
senses, independent of reason, and often the masters of reason, have led
him into pursuit of pleasure. All creatures either torment or tempt him,
and domineer over him, either subduing him by their strength, or
fascinating him by their charms, a tyranny more awful and more
imperious.
"Such is the state in which men now are. There remains to them some
feeble instinct of the happiness of their former state; and they are
plunged in the evils of their blindness and their lust, which have
become their second nature.
"From this principle which I disclose to you, you can recognise the
cause of those contradictions which have astonished all men, and have
divided them into parties holding so different views. Observe, now, all
the feelings of greatness and glory which the experience of so many woes
cannot stifle, and see if the cause of them must not be in another
nature."
_For Port-Royal to-morrow (Prosopopoea)._--"It is in vain, O men, that
you seek within yourselves the remedy for your ills. All your light can
only reach the knowledge that not in yourselves will you find truth or
good. The philosophers have promised you that, and have been unable to
do it. They neither know what is your true good, nor what is your true
state. How could they have given remedies for your ills, when they did
not even know them? Your chief maladies are pride, which takes you away
from God, and lust, which binds you to earth; and they have done nothing
else but cherish one or other of these diseases. If they gave you God as
an end, it was only to administer to your pride; they made you think
that you are by nature like Him, and conformed to Him. And those who saw
the absurdity of this claim put you on another precipice, by making you
understand that your nature was like that of the brutes, and led you to
seek your good in the lusts which are shared by the animals. This is not
the way to cure you of your unrighteousness, which these wise men never
knew. I alone can make you understand who you are...."
Adam, Jesus Christ.
If you are united to God, it is by grace, not by nature. If you are
humbled, it is by penitence, not by nature.
Thus this double capacity ...
You are not in the state of your creation.
As these two states are open, it is impossible for you not to recognise
them. Follow your own feelings, observe yourselves, and see if you do
not find the lively characteristics of these two natures. Could so many
contradictions be found in a simple subject?
--Incomprehensible.--Not all that is incomprehensible ceases to exist.
Infinite number. An infinite space equal to a finite.
--Incredible that God should unite Himself to us.--This consideration is
drawn only from the sight of our vileness. But if you are quite sincere
over it, follow it as far as I have done, and recognise that we are
indeed so vile that we are incapable in ourselves of knowing if His
mercy cannot make us capable of Him. For I would know how this animal,
who knows himself to be so weak, has the right to measure the mercy of
God, and set limits to it, suggested by his own fancy. He has so little