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All of humanity's misfortune comes from one thing: not knowing how to remain at rest in a room.

Blaise Pascal, Pensées

PhilosophyMind

The story behind the card

The line comes from the Pensées, the notes the French mathematician and physicist Blaise Pascal was gathering for a defence of Christianity when he died in 1662; they were published in 1670. It belongs to his discussion of divertissement, or diversion: hunting, gambling, court business and every other occupation that keeps people from thinking about their own condition. Even a king, he wrote, becomes miserable once nothing distracts him. The popular English version often adds 'alone', but Pascal's French says only that people cannot stay quietly 'in a room'. In a 2014 study published in Science, many volunteers left alone with their thoughts for fifteen minutes chose to give themselves a mild electric shock rather than do nothing.

Türkçe oku
İnsanların bütün mutsuzluğu tek bir şeyden gelir: bir odada sakin sakin oturmayı bilmemekten.
Blaise Pascal, Düşünceler

Söz, Fransız matematikçi ve fizikçi Blaise Pascal'ın Düşünceler'inden. Pascal bu notları Hristiyanlığı savunacak bir kitap için topluyordu; 1662'de öldüğünde kitap bitmemişti, notlar 1670'te yayımlandı. Bu parça, Pascal'ın “oyalanma” (divertissement) dediği şeyle ilgilidir: av, kumar, saray işleri gibi, insanı kendi durumunu düşünmekten alıkoyan bütün uğraşlar. Ona göre oyalanacak bir şeyi kalmayan bir kral bile mutsuz olur. Sözün İngilizcede dolaşan biçimine çoğu zaman “yalnız” sözcüğü eklenir; oysa Pascal yalnızca “bir odada” der. 2014'te Science dergisinde yayımlanan bir deneyde, düşünceleriyle on beş dakika baş başa bırakılan gönüllülerin birçoğu hiçbir şey yapmamak yerine kendine hafif bir elektrik şoku vermeyi seçti.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Pensées
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