Twelve centuries after Augustine, the brilliant mind of Blaise Pascal took up this same human predicament. “All men seek happiness,” he noted in his Pensées; “this is the motive of every action of every man, even of those who hang themselves.” He then went on to cite humanity’s endless sighs and groans as confirmation that nobody ever really satisfies this innate desire: “All complain—princes and subjects, noblemen and commoners, old and young, strong and weak, learned and ignorant, healthy and sick, of all countries, all times, all ages, and all conditions.”
