When I see the blind and wretched state of men, when I survey the whole universe in its deadness, and man left to himself with no light, as though lost in this corner of the universe without knowing who put him there, what he has to do, or what will become of him when he dies, incapable of knowing anything, I am moved to terror, like a man transported in his sleep to some terrifying desert island, who wakes up quite lost, with no means of escape. Then I marvel that so wretched a state does not drive people to despair. Blaise Pascal
About This Quote

The quote above is from Kierkegaard and was written as a letter to his friend, Peter Wilhelm Lund. In the letter, Kierkegaard compares man's despair to a man standing at sea and gazing upon the vastness of the ocean he is about to enter: "...in the dread of the unknown I could then begin to realize that I was lost in this dreadful desert, and it then suddenly came into my head that what I had to do was look around me where I was rather than look over the sea. And suddenly, just as suddenly as one can jump up from one's seat when one has been so carried away by some powerful thought that one has lost all power of movement, I stood up and said: 'There is no greater problem than this: man's despair.' And I began to think immediately upon the whole of man's despair."

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More Quotes By Blaise Pascal
  1. The heart has its reasons which reason knows not.
  2. I have only made this letter longer because I have not had the time to make it shorter.", 1657)
  3. I made this [letter] very long, because I did not have the leisure to make it shorter.
  4. To make light of philosophy is to be a true philosopher.
  5. To ridicule philosophy is really to philosophize.
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