{c}
{title2=1623-1662}
{wiki}

Good film about him: <Blaise Pascal (1972)>.

Good quote from his https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lettres_provinciales[Les Provinciales] (1656-57) Letter XII, p. 227:
\Q[
The war in which violence endeavours to crush truth is a strange and a long one.

All the efforts of violence cannot weaken truth, but only serve to exalt it the more.

The light of truth can do nothing to arrest violence; nay, it serves to provoke it still more.

When force opposes force, the more powerful destroys the less; when words are opposed to words, those which are true and convincing destroy and scatter those which are vain and false; but violence and truth can do nothing against each other.

Yet, let no one imagine that things are equal between them; for there is this final difference, that the course of violence is limited by the ordinance of God, who directs its workings to the glory of the truth, which it attacks; whereas truth subsists eternally, and triumphs finally over its enemies, because it is eternal, and powerful, like God Himself.
]
French version reproduced at: https://www.dicocitations.com/citation/auteurajout35106.php[].


Discussion on "Blaise Pascal" by Ciro Santilli 32