Atteindre l'essence, la vérité, le « souverain bien », c'est se défaire des « puissances trompeuses », des passions et de la concupiscence (110), c'est entretenir « la conversation intérieure » (91) et renoncer à l'agitation : « Tout le malheur des hommes vient d'une seule chose, qui est de ne pouvoir demeurer en repos dans une chambre » (126), car « le bonheur n'est en effet que dans le repos et non pas dans le tumulte » (126). 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. I try to be just, true, sincere, and faithful to all men; I have a tender heart for those to whom God has more closely united me; and whether I am alone, or seen of men, I do all my actions in the sight of God, who must judge of them, and to whom I have consecrated them all. It seems that their license must be without any limits or barriers, since they have broken through so many that are so just and sacred. For our members do not feel the happiness of their union, of their wonderful intelligence, of the care which has been taken to infuse into them minds, and to make them grow and endure. We must have a fixed point in order to judge. 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. xxix. Un constat : une vie pitoyable — L'imagination — Le piège des apparences — Le divertissement — Grandeur
The reasoning of the ungodly in the Book of Wisdom is only based upon the nonexistence of God.
Epictetus concludes that, since there are consistent Christians, every man can easily be so.351.
It must have strange defects to be contemptible.
But if there were a God to love, they would not have come to this conclusion, but to quite the contrary. Il lui faut donc éviter de penser. 471.
"No, for I, by whom thou learnest, can heal thee of them, and what I say to thee is a sign that I will heal thee. 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. 545. But in proof of Jesus Christ we have the prophecies, which are solid and palpable proofs. Second part.—That man without faith cannot know the true good, nor justice.All men seek happiness.
External works.—There nothing so perilous as what pleases God and man. Pascal misquotes Acts 17:23.
369.
Will he be equal to God or the brutes? Selon Pascal, l’homme est incapable de vérité. Their virtue is satisfied with itself. No other religion has proposed to men to hate themselves.
These foundations, solidly established on the inviolable authority of religion, make us know that there are two truths of faith equally certain: the one, that man, in the state of creation, or in that of grace, is raised above all nature, made like unto God and sharing in His divinity; the other, that in the state of corruption and sin, he is fallen from this state and made like unto the beasts. For man holds an inward talk with his self alone, which it behoves him to regulate well: 537.
Shall he doubt whether he doubts? 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. Rev. "Ask thy confessor, when My own words are to thee occasion of evil, vanity, or curiosity. 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 life is a dream a little less inconstant.
Mais l'homme ne doit pas se décourager : « Nous avons une idée du bonheur et nous pouvons y arriver » même si cette tâche se révèle impossible (122). "Worthy God's hallowed members to embrace." On reconnaît ici la théorie janséniste : « L'homme n'est qu'un sujet plein d'erreur naturelle, et ineffaçable sans la grâce » (41) qui doit être donnée « par sentiment de cœur, sans quoi la foi n'est qu'humaine et inutile pour le salut » (101). Ceux-ci seraient au fondement du désir de Pascal d’écrire un livre, après avoir été témoin de la guérison miraculeuse de sa nièce, Marguerite Perrier. 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. For if they knew the excellence of man, they were ignorant of his corruption; so that they easily avoided sloth, but fell into pride. All this is bad, and is born in us. The greatness of man.—The greatness of man is so evident that it is even proved by his wretchedness.
Trente extraits de son oeuvre pour s'en inspirer dès à présent.
So the righteous man takes for himself nothing of the world, nor of the applause of the world, but only for his passions, which he uses as their master, saying to the one, "Go," and to another, "Come." 402.