Monday, May 09, 2005

interesting: it isn't blaise pascal "for sure"

"I have only made this letter rather long because I have not had time to make it shorter."
Very interesting but probably it isn't by Blaise Pascal ... the quote is debated through and through and google isnt much help either. It will only take you to discussion pages so all that u can say with confidence is that "this is debated".

Here's my favorite discussion http://palimpsest.stanford.edu/byform/mailing-lists/exlibris/2003/07/msg00105.html
A librarian is trying to trace the origin of the quote but all the help the discussion offers is to go on to attribute it to Blaise Pascal, Voltaire, Augustin.

If u search long enough u can see it being attributed to Albert Einstein, Thomas Jefferson, Mark Twain, H.D. Thoreau, Oscar Wilde and others even by people who claim to be experts. But yes most prominently it is to Pascal indeed - may be he heard the use somewhere and used it and then went on to become famous. Who knows.

Anyway, the quote is beautiful. And a very good excuse too.