A Blaise of Glory

I love going to parties where the main course is a large variety of appetizers, like cheese fondue, mini quiches, artichoke dip with sourdough bread, etc. You're more than adequately nourished and you get to sample lots of different flavors and textures. Plus, if you hate one appetizer, there's usually nine or ten more to choose from. And you don't even need silverware! When it comes to dinner, I want ease and options.

My taste in food definitely mirrors my taste in literature. I like lots of small bites as opposed to one large meal. I'm much more satisfied reading a few Flannery O' Connor short stories in one afternoon than spending a month completing "Great Expectations." That's probably one of the reasons I love "Pensees" by 17th century French mathematician, physicist, and philosopher Blaise Pascal.

"Pensees" (thoughts) contains hundreds of Pascal's brilliant thoughts on God, imagination, the state of man, vanity, and more. They're the literary equivalent of a great appetizer: nourishing, delicious, and small enough that you can finish one in less than a minute.

I like reading a few of Pascal's thoughts from time to time and here are two that I've recently enjoyed. Bon Appetit!

#172. We do not rest satisfied with the present. We anticipate the future as too slow in coming, as if in order to hasten its course; or we recall the past, to stop its too rapid flight. So imprudent are we that we wander in the times which are not ours and do not think of the only one which belongs to us; and so idle are we that we dream of those times which are no more and thoughtlessly overlook that which alone exists. For the present is generally painful to us. We conceal it from our sight, because it troubles us; and, if it be delightful to us, we regret to see it pass away. We try to sustain it by the future and think of arranging matters which are not in our power, for a time which we have no certainty of reaching. Let each one examine his thoughts, and he will find them all occupied with the past and the future. We scarcely ever think of the present; and if we think of it, it is only to take light from it to arrange the future. The present is never our end. The past and the present are our means; the future alone is our end. So we never live, but we hope to live; and, as we are always preparing to be happy, it is inevitable we should never be so.

#181. We are so unfortunate that we can only take pleasure in a thing on condition of being annoyed if it turn out ill, as a thousand things can do, and do every hour. He who should find the secret of rejoicing in the good, without troubling himself with its contrary evil, would have hit the mark. It is perpetual motion.