If you are happy every single day, how can you know happiness? How can you know anything, except through its differences? Admittedly, Pascal wasn’t much into happiness, but he knew a few things about human misery and greatness. « La grandeur de l’homme est grande en ce qu’il se connaît misérable ; un arbre ne se connaît pas misérable. C’est donc être misérable que de (se) connaître misérable, mais c’est être grand que de connaître qu’on est misérable. » “The greatness of man is great in that he knows himself to be miserable; a tree does not know itself to be miserable. It is therefore being miserable to know one(self) to be miserable; but it is also being great to know that one is miserable.” —Blaise Pascal, Pensées, Lafuma 114 / Brunschvicg 397 « Toutes ces misères-là même prouvent sa grandeur. Ce sont misères de grand seigneur. Misères d’un roi dépossédé. » “All these same miseries prove man’s greatness. They are the miseries of a great lord. Miseries of a deposed king.” —Blaise Pascal, Pensées, Lafuma 116 / Brunschvicg 398
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2009-09-04 05:51 pm (UTC)« La grandeur de l’homme est grande en ce qu’il se connaît misérable ; un arbre ne se connaît pas misérable. C’est donc être misérable que de (se) connaître misérable, mais c’est être grand que de connaître qu’on est misérable. »
“The greatness of man is great in that he knows himself to be miserable; a tree does not know itself to be miserable. It is therefore being miserable to know one(self) to be miserable; but it is also being great to know that one is miserable.”
—Blaise Pascal, Pensées, Lafuma 114 / Brunschvicg 397
« Toutes ces misères-là même prouvent sa grandeur. Ce sont misères de grand seigneur. Misères d’un roi dépossédé. »
“All these same miseries prove man’s greatness. They are the miseries of a great lord. Miseries of a deposed king.”
—Blaise Pascal, Pensées, Lafuma 116 / Brunschvicg 398