Q0243

Blaise Pascal

A verified English rendering from the curated archive.

English

All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.
Thinker Blaise Pascal
School Christian Existential Precursor
Source Pensées §139
Theme Action
Another quotation More from this thinker

Source context

This English passage is associated with Pensées §139, within the tradition of Christian Existential Precursor. The wording below is a verified rendering prepared for careful reading rather than a claim of unique translation authority.

A short reading

Read in the register of action, the sentence asks the reader to test an assumption rather than to collect a slogan. In Blaise Pascal's wider work, similar claims are usually offered as prompts for judgment: what would have to be true for the sentence to hold, and what would follow if it did?

How to cite this quotation

APA: Blaise Pascal. (n.d.). All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0243

MLA: Blaise Pascal. “All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0243.

Chicago: Blaise Pascal. “All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0243.

Same thinker

More from Blaise Pascal

  1. The heart has its reasons, which reason does not know.
  2. Man is only a reed, the weakest in nature; but he is a thinking reed.
  3. All our dignity consists, then, in thought.
  4. The eternal silence of these infinite spaces frightens me.
  5. All of humanity’s misfortune comes from one thing: not knowing how to remain quietly in a room.

All quotations by Blaise Pascal

Same theme

More on action

  1. The human good is activity of soul in accordance with virtue.
  2. It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that they are difficult.
  3. If you wish to be loved, love.
  4. We must cultivate our garden.
  5. Men, not Man, live on the earth and inhabit the world.

Browse the action theme