Pensées (Penguin Classics)

Bascal was brilliant and very thoughtful - and his writing is thought-provoking. Pensees is basically a stream-of-consciousness about all aspects of life, God, meaning, purpose, etc. I especially loved his powerful comparison of Mohammad and Jesus, brought up some really important distinctions that I had never thought of before. Great read, worth your time and investment.

I am focused on this one section (p. 324 -326) as it is so brilliantly written and describes the varying degrees of self-love -- it grabbed me from the 1st sentence. It explains why we are out of harmony with our fellow human beings (and they, with us). It is universally true and comforting as Pascal enlightens and gives true understanding of man's wretched state. (I thought to myself after reading it, "What is the answer to mankind's varying degrees of selfishness, as outlined by Pascal, and the answer is to ponder the life of the most perfect human being who ever lived and try to follow His commands and try to live life according to His teachings, i.e., "the Sermon on the Mount.") Romans, Chapter 8, in the New Testament discusses the carnal [or natural] mind which is "enmity against God." What you have in Pascal's "Self-Love" is the sad and hopeless picture of the natural man and why the natural man can never know peace, but only discontent. The answer is to be spiritually minded which is "life and peace." (NKJV)

Before actually reading "Pensees," I knew Blaise Pascal and his "Pensees" only from snippets of quotes such as, "The heart has its reason of which reason knows nothing" and from "Pascal's Wager": better to risk believing in God and living with Him for all eternity and being wrong, then risk not believing in God and living apart from Him in all eternity and because you were wrong. Having read him, I know now that the quote and wager just mentoned, though only snippets, do summarize his brilliance and his beauty. Like few others, Pascal fuses head and heart in his defense of Christianity. His ability is likely due to his brilliant mind that on November 23, 1654, from 10:30 PM to 12:30 AM encountered God in a mysterious, mystical experience that he could only describe with the one-word epitaph: "Fire." For the rest of his brief life (he died at age 39), the fire in his soul and the genius of his mind merged in the "writing" of "Pensees." I place "writing" in quotation marks because Pascal's early death never allowed him to finish "Pensees." What we have is akin to his outline (though 325 pages in length!). Imagine if he had actually finished it. Pascal, ever the absent-minded professor, would have a thought run through his mind, write it down, cut it in a strip, and splice it in with other similar subject headings. It's helpful to understand this before reading "Pensee" for what you find is brilliant disorder--an incomplete sentence here, half a thought there, then long and insightful paragraphs here. In other words, you do need to wade through the unusual design of the book, but in the wading you will find oceans of depth that flood both your heart and your head with passion and reason to love and know God. Pascal's "real world" arguments for God are the most rationally and personally compelling ones that I have ever read. Pascal honestly faces the reality that we see God only in part and that by evidence alone, whether of reason or nature or both, we might just as well conclude that there is no God (the atheists), or that He is not loving, or not powerful, or that He is disinterested (Deism), or dispassionate (the Greek philosophers). He then explains that God reveals enough in nature to cause us to perceive His existence and to perceive that we are finite and fallen. Nature, according to Pascal, points more to the Mediator--Christ--the One who reveals the hidden God as a God of holiness and love, and the One who reveals us as God's prodigal children who need to come home. Reviewer: Dr. Robert W. Kellemen is the author of "Soul Physicians: A Theology of Soul Care and Spiritual Direction," "Spiritual Friends: A Methodology of Soul Care and Spiritual Direction," and the forthcoming "Sacred Companions: A History of Soul Care and Spiritual Direction."

Update: May 2012 In revisiting the Kindle editions of Pensees, I've discovered that there is now a Kindle version of the Penguin Classics edition. This version is the one translated by A. J. Krailsheimer. It also contains the Introduction written by Mr. Kreilsheimer which gives what appears to be an excellent background of the work. (I haven't read it yet.) The formatting is generally good. It uses Kindle standard fonts. Each note is visually separated from the one before it. It contains active links to footnotes. The table of contents is very good. It also uses standard paragraph breaks. (No blank line between, and first line indented.) Unfortunately, the left margin wanders left and right. (I've seen this on a few other books, so I'm not sure it's the publisher's fault.) This is the edition I was hoping to find when I first wrote the review. I recommend it. ---------- Warning! If you reached this Kindle edition by way of the edition published by Penguin Classics, be aware that this Kindle edition (by Douglas Editions) of Pensees is not the same book. The Penguin version was translated by A. J. Krailsheimer, while this Kindle edition was translated by W. F. Trotter. In my opinion, the Trotter translation is far weaker than the Krailsheimer translation, or any other translation I've checked. For example, consider these two translations of this thought: "How is it that a lame man does not annoy us while a lame mind does? Because a lame man recognizes that we are walking straight, while a lame mind says that it is we who are limping." --from A. J. Krailsheimer's translation "How comes it that a cripple does not offend us, but that a fool does? Because a cripple recognises [sic] that we walk straight, whereas a fool declares that it is we who are silly;" --from W. F. Trotter's translation All the other translations I've compared these sentences to are far closer to the Krailsheimer translation than Trotter's. Unfortunately, all the Kindle editions of Pensees (as of this writing) are the Trotter translation. So all that's left is to compare the differences of the Kindle editions. The rest of this review is based on the sample of the Douglas Editions version. This one has a table of contents, but it's not very good. All it lists is "Section 1", "Section 2", and so forth instead of descriptive names. It's also not linked directly from the menu, so you have to go to the cover then the next page to get to it. Footnotes are not active links. I also noticed that there is a blank space between each paragraph. It doesn't really bother me, but I'm mentioning it anyway in case it bothers you. Otherwise, this is a pretty vanilla Kindle edition. The font size is standard. (Some Kindle editions aren't.) There don't seem to be any flaws beyond what I mentioned. There's also no introduction or cover art. It seems that this review will also show up under the Kindle edition I did buy. That's the version of Pensées by Christian Classics Ethereal Library . It does have a descriptive Table of Contents which is accessible directly from the menu, cover art, and better formatting, though I would prefer a blank space before each numbered section. But it's still the Trotter translation, so I would give it only 3 stars.

This is a classic. His thoughts about the evidence for God are especially interesting. Based on Pascal's beliefs and life, it seems great science, great thought, and belief in God are totally compatible.

I have several versions of the Pensées. Krailsheimer's is my favorite. It's clear and (I think) accurate. I like the way it is organized. The 32 page introduction is very helpful. And Krailsheimer provides a concordance that allows me to find the various passages in another translation of the Pensées and in the Brunschvicg French edition (G. F. Flammarion, publisher). I've had the Penguin Classics paperback for decades, but recently I needed to refer to Pascal's thoughts in several lessons I was giving. I wanted to have a copy on my iPhone and iPad (and I can search for content electronically . . . nice). So now I can have Pascal at hand wherever I go (w/iPhone in pocket).

I have thoroughly enjoyed this book by Pascal. It is very topical for our times and quite current. He is very clever and witty and will give you many pleasant days and evenings of thought provoking insights into the human character.

I thought I was buying the French version as the title is in French and the author wrote it in French originally. However, this version is in English. Not what I wished for but my mistake.