Félix Ravaisson, Saggi filosofici, preface and translation by Adriano Tilgher, "Tiber" Arti grafiche, Roma, 1917

An attempt has been made to prove, by means of selected passages from Pascal's Pensées, an apology for Christianity which he left in draft form, that by sacrificing reason to faith he denied the possibility of all philosophy. I propose to show, not as others seem to have done successfully, that Pascal was not a sceptic, but that in his “'Pensées”' there are, if not a system comparable in scope and detail to those of Descartes, of a Spinoza, a Malebranche or a Leibniz, at least the ideas that constitute the principles of a true philosophy. I propose to show equally that these ideas are in perfect agreement with Pascal's beliefs, and that there is no reason to be surprised by them, because there are none more suitable for harmonising, and even intimately uniting, Christianity and philosophy in their highest parts. (La filosofia di Pascal, p. 131)

— Félix Ravaisson

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "An attempt has been made to prove, by means of selected passages from Pascal's Pensées, an apology for Christianity which he left in draft form, that by sacrificing reason to faith he denied the possibility of all philosophy. I propose to show, not as others seem to have done successfully, that Pascal was not a sceptic, but that in his “'Pensées”' there are, if not a system comparable in scope and detail to those of Descartes, of a Spinoza, a Malebranche or a Leibniz, at least the ideas that constitute the principles of a true philosophy. I propose to show equally that these ideas are in perfect agreement with Pascal's beliefs, and that there is no reason to be surprised by them, because there are none more suitable for harmonising, and even intimately uniting, Christianity and philosophy in their highest parts. (La filosofia di Pascal, p. 131)" in the context of "Félix Ravaisson, Saggi filosofici, preface and translation by Adriano Tilgher, "Tiber" Arti grafiche, Roma, 1917" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

Source: Wikiquote: "Blaise Pascal" (Quotes about Pascal) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
Blaise Pascal

About Blaise Pascal

Blaise Pascal (19 June 1623 – 19 August 1662) was a French mathematician, logician, physicist and theologian.