{
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  "site": {
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  "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/blaise-pascal/pensees/man-is-but",
  "json": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/blaise-pascal/pensees/man-is-but.json",
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  "text": "Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature; but he is a thinking reed. The entire universe need not arm itself to crush him. A vapour, a drop of water suffices to kill him. But, if the universe were to crush him, man would still be more noble than that which killed him, because he knows that he dies and the advantage which the universe has over him; the universe knows nothing of this. All our dignity consists, then, in thought. By it we must elevate ourselves, and not by space and time which we cannot fill. Let us endeavour, then, to think well; this is the principle of morality.",
  "language": "en",
  "author": {
    "name": "Blaise Pascal",
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  "book": {
    "title": "Pensees",
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  "original": {
    "language": "fr",
    "text": "L'homme n'est qu'un roseau, le plus faible de la nature; mais c'est un roseau pensant. Il ne faut pas que l’univers entier s’arme pour l’écraser : une vapeur, une goutte d’eau suffit pour le tuer. Mais quand l’univers l’écraserait, l’homme serait encore plus noble que ce qui le tue, parce qu’il sait qu’il meurt, et l’avantage que l’univers a sur lui, l’univers n’en sait rien. Ainsi toute notre dignité consiste dans la pensée. C'est de là qu'il faut nous relever, non de l'espace et de la durée. Travaillons donc à bien penser. voilà le principe de la morale. (Pascal, Pensées, ed.Ch.M des Granges, Garnier, Paris, 1964, no.347 p. 162)"
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  "topics": [
    {
      "name": "human nature",
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      "name": "thinking",
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    "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Pens%C3%A9es#Section_VI:_The_Philosophers_(339-424)",
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  "added_at": "2026-09-26T07:49:54",
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      "id": "dd326e04-6abf-485c-8b82-f0cd7bf62968",
      "slug": "the-eternal-silence",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/blaise-pascal/pensees/the-eternal-silence",
      "text": "The eternal silence of these infinite spaces frightens me.",
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          "name": "fear",
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        {
          "name": "the universe",
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        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Pens%C3%A9es#Section_III:_On_the_Necessity_of_the_Wager_(184-241)",
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      "id": "bcf70eeb-756a-42a1-bc80-1f4ab596b2dd",
      "slug": "man-is-neither",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/blaise-pascal/pensees/man-is-neither",
      "text": "Man is neither angel nor brute, and the unfortunate thing is that he who would act the angel acts the brute.",
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      "chapter": null,
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      "slug": "it-is-not-certain",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/blaise-pascal/pensees/it-is-not-certain",
      "text": "It is not certain that everything is uncertain.",
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