more on this theme
|
more from this thinker
Single Idea 6678
[filed under theme 22. Metaethics / C. The Good / 2. Happiness / d. Routes to happiness
]
Full Idea
Our thoughts are wholly concerned with the past or the future, never with the present, which is never our end; thus we never actually live, but hope to live, and since we are always planning to be happy, it is inevitable that we should never be so.
Gist of Idea
We live for the past or future, and so are never happy in the present
Source
Blaise Pascal (Pensées [1662], 47 (172))
Book Ref
Pascal,Blaise: 'Pensées', ed/tr. Krailsheimer,A.J. [Penguin 1966], p.43
A Reaction
A very nice expression of the importance of 'living for the moment' as a route to happiness. Personally I am occasionally startled by the thought 'Good heavens, I seem to be happy!', but it usually passes quickly. How do you plan for the present?
The
14 ideas
from 'Pensées'
|
6677
|
Imagination creates beauty, justice and happiness, which is the supreme good
[Pascal]
|
|
6678
|
We live for the past or future, and so are never happy in the present
[Pascal]
|
|
6679
|
It is not good to be too free
[Pascal]
|
|
6680
|
It is a funny sort of justice whose limits are marked by a river
[Pascal]
|
|
6681
|
We only want to know things so that we can talk about them
[Pascal]
|
|
6682
|
Majority opinion is visible and authoritative, although not very clever
[Pascal]
|
|
22011
|
The first principles of truth are not rational, but are known by the heart
[Pascal]
|
|
6676
|
Painting makes us admire things of which we do not admire the originals
[Pascal]
|
|
7455
|
Pascal knows you can't force belief, but you can make it much more probable
[Pascal, by Hacking]
|
|
7457
|
Pascal is right, but relies on the unsupported claim of a half as the chance of God's existence
[Hacking on Pascal]
|
|
7456
|
The libertine would lose a life of enjoyable sin if he chose the cloisters
[Hacking on Pascal]
|
|
6684
|
If you win the wager on God's existence you win everything, if you lose you lose nothing
[Pascal]
|
|
6675
|
The heart has its reasons of which reason knows nothing
[Pascal]
|
|
20732
|
If man considers himself as lost and imprisoned in the universe, he will be terrified
[Pascal]
|