Sunday, May 07, 2006

Diversion

The only thing which consoles 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 imperceptibly ruin ourselves. - Blaise Pascal.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be alert and self-controled. I Thess. 5:6

Douglas Groothuis, Ph.D. said...

DH: You are not a narcissist! I should know.

Craig Fletcher said...

Very convicting!

You seem to have a knack for reminding me "how to be" and I appreciate it.

Silence. No TV. Study. Meditative thought. Coltrane.

You are such a radical!

nancy said...

translated for May 2006:

"The only thing which consoles for our miseries" of being unable to find the perfect word for the perfect sentence or to unearth the argument clenching quote is the "diversion" of the blogosphere, "and yet this is the greatest of our miseries" this unending cycle of reading and posting and reading and posting. "For it is this which principally hinders us from reflecting upon ourselves" and the incoherent sentences sprinkled throughout our term papers "and which makes us imperceptibly ruin ourselves" for lack of sleep!

dave and amy terpstra said...

I don't think Pascal looked hard enough for good diversions.

Douglas Groothuis, Ph.D. said...

Pastor Terpstra, you are being glib! Too much TV, no doubt. Now I'm being glib.

dave and amy terpstra said...

Glibness must be contagious.

I do have a question for you as an expert on Pascal which deals with the subject of diversions: What were Pascal's views on alcohol? Being such a sober-minder individual, and critical thinker, what were his thoughts on our culture's largest consumable diversion?

Susan said...

Dave,

This one is memorable:

"Too much and too little wine. Give him none, he cannot find truth; give him too much, the same." ~ Blaise Pascal

-Susan

Douglas Groothuis, Ph.D. said...

Susan swings (this the jazz version of "rocks"), as does Pascal!