Pascal's Insights on Human Nature

~ Man's sensitivity to trivia, and his insensitivity to matters of major importance, reveal he has a strange disorder. (Pascal, Pensees in Mind on Fire, p. 51)

~ Man's constitution is one of inconsistency, of boredom, and of anxiety. (Pascal, Pensees in Mind on Fire, p. 51)

~ Man finds nothing so intolerable as to be in a state of absolute rest, without exercising any passions, being unemployed, having no diversion, and living without any effort. It is then that he thinks he faces emptiness, loneliness, a sense of inadequacy, feeling dependent, helpless, and living a meaningless life. Then there wells up from the depths of his being a sense of boredom, pessimisim, depression, frustration, resentment, and despair. (Pascal, Pensees; Mind on Fire, p. 73)