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Friedrich Nietzsche
A 17th-century French scientist, mathematician, theologian, and philosopher whose most famous work, Pensées (“Thoughts”), Alain de Botton frequently cites throughout The Art of Travel. Most importantly, John Ruskin’s arguments for the virtues of drawing echo Pascal’s earlier belief that people often admire paintings and other representations of real objects instead of admiring the objects themselves.
Blaise Pascal Quotes in The Art of Travel
The The Art of Travel quotes below are all either spoken by Blaise Pascal or refer to Blaise Pascal. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 9 Quotes
“The sole cause of man’s unhappiness is that he does not know how to stay quietly in his room”—Pascal, Pensées, 136.
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Pascal’s prophetic words in the 17th century foreshadow Xavier de Maistre’s thrilling adventure around his bedroom more than a century later: de Maistre manages to find boundless enjoyment staying quietly in his room (although, in truth, de Botton never mentions that he was on house arrest during the whole endeavor, which might account for his decision to try out “room travel”). Nevertheless, Pascal suggests that something like curiosity, wanderlust, or the desire to experience the foreign is a driving cause behind human unhappiness; were people to appreciate what they have, or perhaps simply let go of their desire to discover Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. Tenetur qui dignissimos. Qui et ut. Voluptate labore corporis. Hic tempore laborum. Nisi quia ea. Quia soluta itaque. Deleniti nisi earum. Ad tenetur laboriosam. Eum accusamu
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Blaise Pascal Character Timeline in The Art of Travel
The timeline below shows where the character Blaise Pascal appears in The Art of Travel. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 6: On the Sublime
...Sinai Desert from the Israeli resort town of Eilat. On the plane ride, he reads Pascal’s Pensées, including a passage where the philosopher writes: “When I consider … the small space...
(full context)
Chapter 7: On Eye-Opening Art
...enthusiastic about van Gogh and Provence’s landscape, he also thinks of a distressing quote from Pascal: “how vain painting is, exciting admiration by its resemblance to things of which we do...
(full context)
Chapter 9: On Habit
De Botton again quotes Pascal’s Pensées: “The sole cause of man’s unhappiness is that he does not know how to...
(full context)
