1623–1662
Blaise Pascal
A mathematician who built a calculating machine at nineteen and stopped calculating at thirty-one. The notes he wrote afterwards are still the sharpest thing anyone has written about human restlessness.
“All of man's unhappiness comes from not being able to sit quietly in a room.”
Blaise Pascal · Pensées
“The heart has its reasons which reason does not know.”
Blaise Pascal · Pensées
Pensées (1670), public domain. English rendering made for this site.