Quotation
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“Either God is or he is not. You must wager.”
Blaise Pascal · Early modern philosophy · Early modern · notes of the 1650s–1662
What does it mean?
The usual reading takes the wager as a practical argument if the gain of believing is infinite and the loss is finite, then prudence is said to favour the bet, even while the evidence stays inconclusive. It is not offered as a demonstration that God exists. A rival reading treats the two sentences as a proof that finishes doubt, or as a cynical trick, and the fragment is neither a finished proof nor a sneer. It is a long note in the Pensées, in the voice of a conversation, and Pascal does not think the betting ends the heart's difficulty.
Did Blaise Pascal really say this?
The library’s label is Paraphrase or translation. A compressed English of the wager fragment, Sellier 680 and Lafuma 418. The wager is an argument in the speaker's voice inside an unfinished apology, not a proof Pascal thinks ends doubt. Numbering differs by edition. This wording is a translation.
Where it comes from
Pensées, Sellier 680 / Lafuma 418
Approximate date: notes of the 1650s–1662.
How to use it
A person in a flat in Reading, unable to settle a question about God and pressed by a friend to pick, is the sort of listener the fragment stages. The staging includes the friend's reluctance, the boredom, and the admission that reason is not forcing the result. Quoting only the command to wager, as if a Sunday decision had been mathematically closed, drops the voice and the unfinishedness; The fragment may still be a bad argument; It should be quoted as an argument, not as a result.
A mindset reading
Must wager is easy to hear as a threat. In the note, the necessity is practical: one is already embarked, so not choosing is itself a way of living the question. That claim can be challenged, and it is not a proof of the prize; A rival use turns the infinite payoff into a template for any belief with a large imagined reward; He is not licensing every infinite story; The fragment is specific, and even then it is a speaker pressing a listener, not the last word of a system.
Understand the philosophy
The key term is the wager, a bet under uncertainty, where the disutility and the possible infinity are supposed to settle practice without settling theory. Sellier 680 and Lafuma 418 mark the long fragment often called the wager. The Pensées are notes toward an apology for Christian faith, ordered by editors. This English compresses the opening move; The badge is a paraphrase, and the note should not be read as a proof he thinks has ended doubt.
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FAQ
What does it mean?
The usual reading takes the wager as a practical argument if the gain of believing is infinite and the loss is finite, then prudence is said to favour the bet, even while the evidence stays inconclusive. It is not offered as a demonstration that God exists. A rival reading treats the two sentences as a proof that finishes doubt, or as a cynical trick, and the fragment is neither a finished proof nor a sneer. It is a long note in the Pensées, in the voice of a conversation, and Pascal does not think the betting ends the heart's difficulty.
Did Blaise Pascal really say this?
Paraphrase or translation. A compressed English of the wager fragment, Sellier 680 and Lafuma 418. The wager is an argument in the speaker's voice inside an unfinished apology, not a proof Pascal thinks ends doubt. Numbering differs by edition. This wording is a translation.
Which work is it in?
Pensées, Sellier 680 / Lafuma 418 Approximate date: notes of the 1650s–1662.