What a Chimera is man! What a novelty, a monster, a chaos, a contradiction, a prodigy! Judge of all things, and imbecile norm of the earth; depository of truth, and sewer of error and doubt; the glory and refuse of the universe. Who shall unravel this confusion?
—from the Pensées of Blaise Pascal, born on this day in 1623
2 comments:
Not quite as uplifting as Shakespeare's "what a piece of work" ,but similar in language. I wonder if Pascal was making a deliberate allusion.
I'm not sure about the possible allusion, but it is not surprising (to me) that Pascal was not as uplifting as Shakespeare.
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