The eternal silence of these infinite spaces frightens me.

When I consider the short duration of my life, swallowed
up in the eternity before and after, the little space which I
fill, and even can see, engulfed in the infinite immensity of
spaces of which I am ignorant, and which know me not, I
am frightened, and am astonished at being here rather than
there; for there is no reason why here rather than there,
why now rather than then. Who has put me here? By
whose order and direction have this place and time been
alloted to me? 

The eternal silence of these infinite spaces frightens me.

How many kingdoms know us not?


Why is my knowledge limited? Why my stature? Why
my life to one hundred years rather than to a thousand?
What reason has nature had for giving me such, and for
choosing this number rather than another in the infinity of
those from which there is no more reason to choose one
than another, trying nothing else?


The last act is tragic, however happy all the rest of the
play is; at the last a little earth is thrown upon our head,
and that is the end for ever.

We are fools to depend upon the society of our fellow men.
Wretched as we are, powerless as we are, they will not
aid us; we shall die alone. We should therefore act as if
we were alone, and in that case should we build fine houses,
etc.?

 We should seek the truth without hesitation; and, if
we refuse it, we show that we value the esteem of men more
than the search for truth.

Pascal