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Blaise Pascal

Blaise Pascal


Among the contemporaries of Descartes none displayed greater natural genius than Pascal, but his mathematical reputation rests more on what he might have done than on what he actually effected, as during a considerable part of his life he deemed it his duty to devote his whole time to religious exercises.

At 16, Pascal began designing a calculating machine, which he finally perfected when he was thirty, the pascaline, a beautiful handcrafted box about fourteen by five by three inches. The first accurate mechanical calculator was born.

Pascal was dismayed and disgusted by society's reactions to his machine and completely renounced his interest in science an mathematics, devoting the rest of his life to God. He is best known for his collection of spiritual essays, Les Pensees.

Ironically, Pascal, who was a genius by any measure, with one of the finest brains of all time, died of a brain hemorrhage at the age of 39.

      Among the contemporaries of Descartes none displayed greater natural genius than Pascal, but his mathematical reputation rests more on what he might have done than on what he actually effected, as during a considerable part of his life he deemed it his duty to devote his whole time to religious exercises.

      He was a child prodigy who was educated by his father, a Tax Collector in Rouen. Pascal's earliest work was in the natural and applied sciences where he made important contributions to the study of fluids, and clarified the concepts of pressure and vacuum by generalizing the work of Evangelista Torricelli.

      In 1646, he and his sister Jacqueline identified with the religious movement within Catholicism known by its detractors as Jansenism. Following a mystical experience in late 1654, he had his "second conversion", abandoned his scientific work, and devoted himself to philosophy and theology. His two most famous works date from this period: the Lettres provinciales and the Pensees.

      In honor of his scientific contributions, the name Pascal has been given to the SI unit of pressure, to a programming language, and Pascal's law (an important principle of hydrostatics), and as mentioned above, Pascal's triangle and Pascal's wager still bear his name.

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is in vain, O men, that you seek within yourselves the remedy for your ills. All your light can only reach the knowledge that not in yourselves will you find truth or good.
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What is wonderful, incomparable and wholly divine is that this religion which has always survived has always been under attack.
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[133] Diversion. Being unable to cure death, wretchedness and ignorance, men have decided, in order to be happy, not to think about such things.
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Gustavo Solivellas dice: "El corazón tiene razones que la razón ignora" (Blaise Pascal)
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For after all what is man in nature? A nothing in relation to infinity, all in relation to nothing, a central point between nothing and all and infinitely far from understanding either. The ends of things and their beginnings are impregnably concealed from him in an impenetrable secret. He is equally incapable of seeing the nothingness out of which he was drawn and the infinite in which he is engulfed. Porque, finalmente, ¿qué es el hombre en la naturaleza? Una nada frente al infinito, un todo frente a la nada, un medio entre nada y todo. Infinitamente alejado de comprender los extremos, el fin de las cosas y su principio le están invenciblemente ocultos en un secreto impenetrable, igualmente incapaz de ver la nada de donde ha sido sacado y el infinito en que se halla sumido.
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De verbeelding kan dwazen niets wijs maken, maar ze maakt hen gelukkig.
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The moment that boredom, or fatigue, the of the passing years, overcomes the specific integrity with which you apply yourself to every problem, then you will be menaced by that over-reliance upon the susceptible positive attributes of system. -
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This solitude that you can acquire and should cultivate, this opportunity for contemplation of which you should take advantage, will be useful to you only insofar as you can substitute for those questions posed by the student for the teacher, questions posed by yourself for yourself. -
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Rather than listen to what other people tell you, find out what is really important to you and just be concerned with that
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Пусть человеку нет никакой выгоды лгать — это еще не значит, что он будет говорить правду: лгут просто во имя лжи.
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Величие человека тем и велико, что он сознает свое ничтожество.
topics: selfrespect  
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If the nose of Cleopatra had been shorter, the whole face of the earth would have been changed.
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С какой лёгкостью и самодовольством злодействует человек, когда он верит, что творит благое дело!
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The heart has reasons of which the mind knows nothing.
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Dans une grande âme tout est grand
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Weltliche Dinge muß man erkennen, damit man sie lieben kann. Göttliche Dinge muß man lieben, damit man sie erkennen kann.
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Do you wish people to believe good of you? Don't speak.
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إنك لا تستطيع أن تعرض حدثا واحدا في حياة شخص ما و تزعم أنك قلت كل شئ عنه
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Wanneer je op een nuttige manier kritiek wilt leveren en een ander laten inzien dat hij zich vergist, moet je onderzoeken van welke kant hij de zaak bekijkt - want van dat standpunt is die meestal juist - en de juistheid hiervan tegenover hem erkennen, maar hem tevens laten zien van welk standpunt zij niet juist is. Daar neemt hij genoegen mee, want hij ziet dat hij zich niet vergist heeft en alleen maar heeft verzuimd om alle kanten te bekijken. Je wordt namelijk niet boos omdat je niet alles ziet, maar je wilt je niet vergissen. Misschien komt dat omdat de mens van nature niet alles kan zien en zich van nature niet kan vergissen ten aanzien van de kant die hij wel ziet omdat de zintuiglijke waarnemingen altijd waar zijn.
topics: vergissen  
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All human troubles derive from our inability to sit still and alone in a room.
topics: how-to-live  
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