La seule chose qui nous console de nos misères est le divertissement, et cependant c'est la plus grande de nos misères. Car c'est cela qui nous empêche principalement de penser à nous, et qui nous fait perdre insensiblement. Sans cela, nous serions dans l'ennui, et cet ennui nous pousserait à chercher un moyen plus solide d'en sortir. Mais le divertissement nous amuse et nous fait arriver insensiblement à la mort.
About the headline (FAQ)
Note: the line-breaks are arbitrary. This is prose.Authorship
- by Blaise Pascal (1623 - 1662), no title, appears in Pensées, first published 1670 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive)
- [ None yet in the database ]
Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:
- Also set in English, adapted by W. F. Trotter , no title GER ; composed by Hanns Eisler.
Other available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- GER German (Deutsch) (Heinrich F. S. Bachmair) , no title
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2003-10-20
Line count: 11
Word count: 70
The only thing which consoles us for our miseries is diversion, and yet this is the greatest of our miseries. For it is this which principally hinders us from reflecting upon ourselves, and which makes us insensibly ruin ourselves. Without this we should be in a state of weariness, and this weariness would spur us to seek a more solid means of escaping from it. But [diversion amuses us and leads]1 us unconsciously to death.
About the headline (FAQ)
View original text (without footnotes)Confirmed with Blaise Pascal, Thoughts, translated by W.F. Trotter, New York: P.F. Collier & Son, 1910, page 64, no. 171.
Note: the line-breaks are arbitrary. This is prose.1 Eisler: "diversions amuse us and lead"
Authorship
Based on- a text in French (Français) by Blaise Pascal (1623 - 1662), no title, appears in Pensées, first published 1670
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive)
- by Hanns Eisler (1898 - 1962), "The only thing which consoles us ", 1942-3, from Zwei Lieder nach Worten von Pascal, no. 2. [text verified 1 time]
- by Hanns Eisler (1898 - 1962), "The only thing which consoles us", from Hollywooder Liederbuch, no. 18. [text verified 1 time]
Research team for this text: Auditorium du Louvre , Sharon Krebs [Guest Editor]
This text was added to the website: 2003-10-20
Line count: 11
Word count: 75