Category: Pascal
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Pascal and Buber on the God of the Philosophers
"God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob — not of the philosophers and scholars." Thus exclaimed Blaise Pascal in the famous memorial in which he recorded the overwhelming religious/mystical experience of the night of 23 November 1654. Martin Buber comments (Eclipse of God, Humanity Books, 1952, p. 49): These words represent Pascal's change…
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On Owning Land
Blaise Pascal, Pensées #113 (Krailsheimer tr., p. 59): It is not in space that I must seek my human dignity, but in the ordering of my thought. It will do me no good to own land. Through space the universe grasps me and swallows me up like a speck; through thought I grasp it. Pascal is…
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Neither Angel Nor Beast
Blaise Pascal, Pensées #329: Man is neither angel nor beast; and the misfortune is that he who would act the angel acts the beast. The first half of the thought is unexceptionable: man is indeed neither angel nor beast, but, amphibious as he is between matter and spirit, a hybrid and a riddle to himself.…
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A Pascalian Indication of Our Fallenness
Edward T. Oakes in a fine article quotes Pascal: The greatness of man is so evident that it is even proved by his wretchedness. For what in animals is called nature we call wretchedness in man; by which we recognize that, his nature now being like that of animals, he has fallen from a better…
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My Favorite Pascal Quotation
Blaise Pascal, Pensees #98 (Krailsheimer tr., p. 55): How is it that a lame man does not annoy us while a lame mind does? Because a lame man recognizes that we are walking straight, while a lame mind says that it is we who are limping. Please forgive the following reformulation. Point out to a…