Human Happiness
Created by the seventeenth-century philosopher and mathematician Pascal, the essays
contained in Human Happiness are a curiously optimistic look at whether humans can ever
find satisfaction and real joy in life - or whether a belief in God is a wise gamble at
best.
Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we
see ourselves - and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution.
They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives - and
destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals
and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization and helped make us who we are.
Blaise Pascal was born in Clermont in 1623, the son of a government
official. During his short life he left his mark on mathematics, physics, religious
controversy and literature. A convert to Jansenism, he engaged with gusto in a controversy
with the Jesuits, which gave rise to his Lettres Provinciales on which, with the Pensées,
his literary fame chiefly rests. A remarkable stylist, he is regarded by many as the
greatest of French prose artists. He died, after a long illness, in 1662.
110 pages,Paperback