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by Blaise Pascal (1623 - 1662)
Translation by W. F. Trotter

La seule chose qui nous console
Language: French (Français) 
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.

Text 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.
      • Go to the text.

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
Language: English  after the French (Français) 
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.

Available sung texts:   ← What is this?

•   H. Eisler •   H. Eisler 

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"

Text Authorship:

  • by W. F. Trotter , no title [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Based on:

  • a text in French (Français) by Blaise Pascal (1623 - 1662), no title, appears in Pensées, first published 1670
    • Go to the text page.

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 page: Auditorium du Louvre , Sharon Krebs [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2003-10-20
Line count: 11
Word count: 76

Gentle Reminder

This website began in 1995 as a personal project by Emily Ezust, who has been working on it full-time without a salary since 2008. Our research has never had any government or institutional funding, so if you found the information here useful, please consider making a donation. Your help is greatly appreciated!
–Emily Ezust, Founder

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