Hope Beyond Death
Blaise Pascal
Pensees

A somber reflection on the inevitability of death, concluding that true happiness is only possible through the hope and assurance of an eternal life hereafter.

...we ought to have this feeling from principles of human interest and self-love; for this we need only see what the least enlightened persons see. We do not require great education of the mind to understand that here is no real and lasting satisfaction; that our pleasures are only vanity; that our evils are infinite; and, lastly, that death, which threatens us every moment, must infallibly place us within a few years under the dreadful necessity of being for ever either annihilated or unhappy.
There is nothing more real than this, nothing more terrible. Be we as heroic as we like, that is the end which awaits the noblest life in the world. Let us reflect on this, and then say whether it is not beyond doubt that there is no good in this life but in the hope of another; that we are happy only in proportion as we draw near it; and that, as there are no more woes for those who have complete assurance of eternity, so there is no more happiness for those who have no insight into it.
Surely then it is a great evil thus to be in doubt, but it is at least an indispensable duty to seek when we are in such doubt; and thus the doubter who does not seek is altogether completely unhappy and completely wrong. And if besides this he is easy and content, professes to be so, and indeed boasts of it; if it is this state itself which is the subject of his joy and vanity, I have no words to describe so silly a creature. How can people hold these opinions? What joy can we find in the ex...
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Happiness's Universal Pursuit
Blaise Pascal
Pensees

The author argues that while all men universally seek happiness, their consistent failure to find it through their own efforts serves as proof of their inherent inability to reach the good without faith.

...g 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. 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…
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 an...
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The Unlived Present
Blaise Pascal
Pensees

A reflection on the human tendency to live in the past or future, concluding that by constantly preparing for a future happiness, we fail to ever actually live in the present.

...which are not ours, and do not think of the only one which belongs to us; and so idle are we that we dream of those times which are no more, and thoughtlessly overlook that which alone exists. For the present is generally painful to us. We conceal it from our sight, because it troubles us; and if it be delightful to us, we regret to see it pass away. We try to sustain it by the future, and think of arranging matters which are not in our power, for a time which we have no certainty of reaching.
Let each one examine his thoughts, and he will find them all occupied with the past and the future. We scarcely ever think of the present; and if we think of it, it is only to take light from it to arrange the future. The present is never our end. The past and the present are our means; the future alone is our end. So we never live, but we hope to live; and, as we are always preparing to be happy, it is inevitable we should never be so.
173 They say that eclipses foretoken misfortune, because misfortunes are common, so that, as evil happens so often, they often foretell it; whereas if they said that they predict good fortune, they would often be wrong. They attribute good fortune only to rare conjunctions of the heavens; so they seldom fail in prediction. 174 Misery.--Solomon[79] and Job have best known and best spoken of the misery of man; the former the most fortunate, and the latter the most unfortunate of men; the...
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Happiness's Immortality Problem
Blaise Pascal
Pensees

The author argues that because humans cannot achieve the immortality required for true happiness, they resort to the diversion of avoiding all thoughts of death.

...ruly happy, we would not need diversion from thinking of it in order to make ourselves happy. 166 Diversion.--Death is easier to bear without thinking of it, than is the thought of death without peril. 167 The miseries of human life have established all this: as men have seen this, they have taken up diversion. 168 Diversion.--As men are not able to fight against death, misery, ignorance, they have taken it into their heads, in order to be happy, not to think of them at all. 169
Despite these miseries, man wishes to be happy, and only wishes to be happy, and cannot wish not to be so. But how will he set about it? To be happy he would have to make himself immortal; but, not being able to do so, it has occurred to him to prevent himself from thinking of death.
170 Diversion.--If man were happy, he would be the more so, the less he was diverted, like the Saints and God.--Yes; but is it not to be happy to have a faculty of being amused by diversion?--No; for that comes from elsewhere and from without, and thus is dependent, and therefore subject to be disturbed by a thousand accidents, which bring inevitable griefs. 171 Misery.--The only thing which consoles us for our miseries is diversion, and yet this it the greatest of our miseries. For i...
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Pleasure's Poisoned Well
Blaise Pascal
Pensees

The author laments the human condition where pleasure is inextricably linked to the fear of loss, suggesting that true happiness would require the impossible 'perpetual motion' of enjoying good without fearing evil.

...Macrobius:[83] on the innocents slain by Herod. 179 When Augustus learnt that Herod's own son was amongst the infants under two years of age, whom he had caused to be slain, he said that it was better to be Herod's pig than his son.--Macrobius, Sat., book ii, chap. 4. 180 The great and the humble have the same misfortunes, the same griefs, the same passions;[84] but the one is at the top of the wheel, and the other near the centre, and so less disturbed by the same revolutions. 181
We are so unfortunate that we can only take pleasure in a thing on condition of being annoyed if it turn out ill, as a thousand things can do, and do every hour. He who should find the secret of rejoicing in the good, without troubling himself with its contrary evil, would have hit the mark. It is perpetual motion.
182 Those who have always good hope in the midst of misfortunes, and who are delighted with good luck, are suspected of being very pleased with the ill success of the affair, if they are not equally distressed by bad luck; and they are overjoyed to find these pretexts of hope, in order to show that they are concerned and to conceal by the joy which they feign to feel that which they have at seeing the failure of the matter. 183 We run carelessly to the precipice, after we have put somethi...
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