Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Pascal on the Divine, Tortured Self

Pascal in the Pensées describes the character of one who sets himself up as his own god: “He [or she] wants to be the object of love and esteem . . . He devotes all his attention to hiding his faults both from others and from himself. He conceives a mortal enmity against that truth which reproves him. He would annihilate it, but, unable to destroy it in its essence, he destroys it in so far as possible.”