Blaise Pascal, 1623 - 1662
Born: 19 June 1623, Clermont-Ferrand, Auvergne, France
Died: 19 August 1662, Paris, France
Few 17 year old boys can claim to have created a mathematical theorem known centuries later, but Blaise Pascal could. The Pascal theorem, laid out in his first serious work on mathematics, Essai pour les coniques ("Essay on Conics") was sent in by his father to Père Mersenne, the leading mathematician of the era. It was so advanced that it brought accusations that it was the work not of Blaise Pascal, but of his father Etienne.
While Etienne Pascal didn't create the theorem, he did nurture his son's talent. Blaise's mother died when he was three, and Etienne took control of the education of his children Blaise, Jacqueline, and Gilberte. Blaise was the most talented in mathematics and science.
After a brush with the displeasure of Cardinal Richelieu, Etienne Pascal was assigned as tax commissioner of Rouen, in northern France, in 1639. This led Blaise to create a mechanical calculator, called a Pascal's calculator or Pascaline, to help his father in 1642. It was not a commercial success due to cost. Around this time, he began showing signs of the chronic illness that eventually killed him.
Pascal produced many important advances in mathematics, science and philosophy. He created a convenient way of representing binomial coefficients (Pascal's Triangle), helped invent probability theory, and laid out Pascal's Wager, a probability-based argument for belief in God. He was also fascinated by hydrodynamics and hydrostatics, inventing both the hydraulic press and the syringe.
In 1654 Pascal had a vision which led him to write his first major work on religion, the Provincial Letters. The popular eighteen-letter series, published between 1656 and 1657, denounced casuistry as an excuse for moral laxness, incensed Louis XIV, and influenced the style of later writers such as Voltaire and Rousseau. His most influential theological work was the Pensées, intended to be a sustained and coherent defense of the Christian faith. Unfortunately, he died (of tuberculosis, stomach cancer, or both) before its completion.
Biography from Wikipedia and The MacTutor History of Mathematics
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Blaise Pascal quotes:
Quotes found : 142 — (15 per page, this is page 1 of 10) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next
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- A trifle consoles us because a trifle upsets us. permalink
Blaise Pascal - Pensées (1670) - All men's miseries derive from not being able to sit in a quiet room alone. permalink
Blaise Pascal - All our reasoning boils down to yielding to sentiment. permalink
Blaise Pascal - Pensées (1670) - An advocate who has been well paid in advance will find the cause he is pleading all the more just. permalink
Blaise Pascal - Pensées (1670) - Anyone who found the secret of rejoicing when things go well without being annoyed when they go badly would have found the point. permalink
Blaise Pascal - Pensées (1670) - Atheism shows strength of mind, but only to a certain degree. permalink
Blaise Pascal - Belief is a wise wager. Granted that faith cannot be proved, what harm will come to you if you gamble on its truth and it proves false? If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager, then, without hesitation, that He exists. permalink
Blaise Pascal - Between us and heaven or hell there is only life, which is the frailest thing in the world. permalink
Blaise Pascal - Bless yourself with holy water, have Masses said, and so on; by a simple and natural process this will make you believe, and will dull you — will quiet your proudly critical intellect. permalink
Blaise Pascal - Pensées (1670) - Caesar was too old, it seems to me, to go off and amuse himself conquering the world. Such a pastime was all right for Augustus and Alexander; they were young men, not easily held in check, but Caesar ought to have been more mature. permalink
Blaise Pascal - Pensées (1670) - Can anything be stupider than that a man has the right to kill me because he lives on the other side of a river and his ruler has a quarrel with mine, though I have not quarrelled with him? permalink
Blaise Pascal - Chance gives rise to thoughts, and chance removes them; no art can keep or acquire them. permalink
Blaise Pascal - Clarity of mind means clarity of passion, too; this is why the great and clear mind loves ardently and sees distinctly what it loves. permalink
Blaise Pascal - Concupiscence and force are the source of all our actions; concupiscence causes voluntary actions, force involuntary ones. permalink
Blaise Pascal - Continuous eloquence wearies. Grandeur must be abandoned to be appreciated. Continuity in everything is unpleasant. Cold is agreeable, that we may get warm. permalink
Blaise Pascal
Quotes found : 142 — (15 per page, this is page 1 of 10) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next
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