Truth vs Injustice
Blaise Pascal
Pensees

The author observes that while logical proof can compel the mind to believe a truth, it lacks the power to rectify systemic injustice or protect one's material interests. Intellectual certainty does not translate into practical security against the corruption of ministers.

...ness in regard to us. 889 Tertullian: Nunquam Ecclesia reformabitur. 890 Heretics, who take advantage of the doctrine of the Jesuits, must be made to know that it is not that of the Church [the doctrine of the Church], and that our divisions do not separate us from the altar. 891 If in differing we condemned, you would be right. Uniformity without diversity is useless to others; diversity without uniformity is ruinous for us. The one is harmful outwardly; the other inwardly. 892
By showing the truth, we cause it to be believed; but by showing the injustice of ministers, we do not correct it. Our mind is assured by a proof of falsehood; our purse is not made secure by proof of injustice.
893 Those who love the Church lament to see the corruption of morals; but laws at least exist. But these corrupt the laws. The model is damaged. 894 Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction. 895 It is in vain that the Church has established these words, anathemas, heresies, etc. They are used against her. 896 The servant knoweth not what his lord doeth, for the master tells him only the act and not the intention.[368] And this is wh...
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Desire's Punishing Paradox
Blaise Pascal
Pensees

The author reflects on the tragic human condition, where an innate desire for truth and happiness is met only with uncertainty and misery, suggesting this tension is a sign of man's fallen state.

...deplorable condition? What does this chaos and monstrous confusion proclaim to us but the truth of these two states, with a voice so powerful that it is impossible to resist it? 436 Weakness.--Every pursuit of men is to get wealth; and they cannot have a title to show that they possess it justly, for they have only that of human caprice; nor have they strength to hold it securely. It is the same with knowledge, for disease takes it away. We are incapable both of truth and goodness. 437
We desire truth, and find within ourselves only uncertainty. We seek happiness, and find only misery and death. We cannot but desire truth and happiness, and are incapable of certainty or happiness. This desire is left to us, partly to punish us, partly to make us perceive wherefrom we are fallen.
438 If man is not made for God, why is he only happy in God? If man is made for God, why is he so opposed to God? 439 Nature corrupted.--Man does not act by reason, which constitutes his being. 440 The corruption of reason is shown by the existence of so many different and extravagant customs. It was necessary that truth should come, in order that man should no longer dwell within himself. 441 For myself, I confess that so soon as the Christian religion reveals the principle that...
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The Prince's Isolation
Blaise Pascal
Pensees

Pascal observes that the powerful are often the least informed of the truth because those around them prioritize their own self-interest over the risk of being disliked for being honest.

...if any have some interest in being loved by us, they are averse to render us a service which they know to be disagreeable. They treat us as we wish to be treated. We hate the truth, and they hide it from us. We desire flattery, and they flatter us. We like to be deceived, and they deceive us. So each degree of good fortune which raises us in the world removes us farther from truth, because we are most afraid of wounding those whose affection is most useful and whose dislike is most dangerous.
A prince may be the byword of all Europe, and he alone will know nothing of it. I am not astonished. To tell the truth is useful to those to whom it is spoken, but disadvantageous to those who tell it, because it makes them disliked. Now those who live with princes love their own interests more than that of the prince whom they serve; and so they take care not to confer on him a benefit so as to injure themselves.
This evil is no doubt greater and more common among the higher classes; but the lower are not exempt from it, since there is always some advantage in making men love us. Human life is thus only a perpetual illusion; men deceive and flatter each other. No one speaks of us in our presence as he does of us in our absence. Human society is founded on mutual deceit; few friendships would endure if each knew what his friend said of him in his absence, although he then spoke in sincerity and without...
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Contradiction's False Sign
Blaise Pascal
Pensees

The author observes that public contradiction is an unreliable metric for truth, as certainties are often disputed while falsehoods may go unchallenged.

...in a ship. When all tend to debauchery, none appears to do so. He who stops draws attention to the excess of others, like a fixed point. 383 The licentious tell men of orderly lives that they stray from nature's path, while they themselves follow it; as people in a ship think those move who are on the shore. On all sides the language is similar. We must have a fixed point in order to judge. The harbour decides for those who are in a ship; but where shall we find a harbour in morality? 384
Contradiction is a bad sign of truth; several things which are certain are contradicted; several things which are false pass without contradiction. Contradiction is not a sign of falsity, nor the want of contradiction a sign of truth.
385 Scepticism.--Each thing here is partly true and partly false. Essential truth is not so; it is altogether pure and altogether true. This mixture dishonours and annihilates it. Nothing is purely true, and thus nothing is true, meaning by that pure truth. You will say it is true that homicide is wrong. Yes; for we know well the wrong and the false. But what will you say is good? Chastity? I say no; for the world would come to an end. Marriage? No; continence is better. Not to kill? No; f...
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Truth in Wrong Place
Blaise Pascal
Pensees

Pascal observes that while popular opinions may contain truth, the public is deluded because they misunderstand the actual reasons or points where that truth resides.

...him; he is not able, therefore I will not fear him." 333 Have you never seen people who, in order to complain of the little fuss you make about them, parade before you the example of great men who esteem them? In answer I reply to them, "Show me the merit whereby you have charmed these persons, and I also will esteem you." 334 The reason of effects.--Lust and force are the source of all our actions; lust causes voluntary actions, force involuntary ones. 335 The reason of effects.--
It is then true to say that all the world is under a delusion; for, although the opinions of the people are sound, they are not so as conceived by them, since they think the truth to be where it is not. Truth is indeed in their opinions, but not at the point where they imagine it. [Thus] it is true that we must honour noblemen, but not because noble birth is real superiority, etc.
336 The reason of effects.--We must keep our thought secret, and judge everything by it, while talking like the people. 337 The reason of effects.--Degrees. The people honour persons of high birth. The semi-learned despise them, saying that birth is not a personal, but a chance superiority. The learned honour them, not for popular reasons, but for secret reasons. Devout persons, who have more zeal than knowledge, despise them, in spite of that consideration which makes them honoured b...
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