In every action we must look beyond the action at our past, present and future state, and at others whom it affects, and see the relations of all the… - Blaise Pascal
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In every action we must look beyond the action at our past, present and future state, and at others whom it affects, and see the relations of all these things.
Blaise Pascal (19 June 1623 – 19 August 1662) was a French mathematician, logician, physicist and theologian.
Biography information from
Wikiquote·
Portrait adapted from
Wikimedia Commons, unknown; a copy of the painting of François II Quesnel, which was made for Gérard Edelinck en 1691[réf. nécessaire]. (Public domain / CC0)
Also Known As
Pen Names:
Louis de Montalte
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Amos Dettonville
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Salomon de Tultie
Alternative Names:
Pascal
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Dettonville
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Paskal Blez
Portrait from Wikimedia Commons. Credit: unknown; a copy of the painting of François II Quesnel, which was made for Gérard Edelinck en 1691[réf. nécessaire].. Used under Public domain / CC0. Processed and styled by Quotewise.
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When I consider the brief span of my life absorbed into the eternity which precedes and will succeed it — memoria hospitis unius diei praetereuntis (remembrance of a guest who tarried but a day) — the small space I occupy and which I see swallowed up in the infinite immensity of spaces of which I know nothing and which know nothing of me, I take fright and am amazed to see myself here rather than there: there is no reason for me to be here rather than there, now rather than then. Who put me here? By whose command and act were this place and time allotted to me?
Nobody is publicly accepted as an expert on poetry unless he displays the sign of poet, mathematician, etc., but universal men want no sign and make hardly any distinction between the crafts of poet and embroiderer. Universal men are not called poets or mathematicians, etc. But they are all these things and judges of them too. No one could guess what they are, and they will talk about whatever was being talked about when they came in. One quality is not more noticeable in them than another, unless it becomes necessary to put it into practice, and then we remember it.
It is not your strength and your natural power that subjects all these people to you. Do not pretend then to rule them by force or to treat them with harshness. Satisfy their reasonable desires; alleviate their necessities; let your pleasure consist in being beneficent; advance them as much as you can, and you will act like the true king of desire.
