Status Updates From Pensieri. Blaise Pascal

Pensée 68: Il faut se connaître soi-même. Quand cela ne servira pas à trouver le vrai, cela au moins sert à régler sa vie,et il n’y a rien de plus juste.

Powerful.

Symbolism som nytta

Pyrrhonism. Each thing here is partly true & partly false. Essential truth is not so; it is wholly pure & wholly true. This admixture ·of falsity· dishonours
& annihilates it: nothing is purely true, so nothing is true—meaning by that pure truth. You will say it is true that homicide is wrong. Yes; for we know well the wrong and the false. //We possess truth & goodness only in part, and mingled with falsehood & evil.

Tyranny consists in the desire to dominate everywhere
and not merely in one’s own proper sphere.

Elegance isn’t
mere vanity; it shows that you have many people working for
you. It shows •by your hair that you have a valet, a perfumer,
etc., •by the decorative features of your clothing etc. It is
not merely superficial—not a merely outward show—to have
many hands ·at your command·. The more hands you have,
the greater your power. To be elegant is to show your power

311. A government based on opinion and imagination is
pleasant and voluntary, and it reigns for some time; a
government based on power lasts for ever. Thus opinion
is like the world’s queen, but power is its tyrant