According to Voltaire’s (Preliminary) Remarks on the Thoughts of Pascal: “It would seem to me that, in general, the spirit in which Pascal wrote his Thoughts was to portray man in an odious light; he unrelentingly paints us all as evil and unhappy […]. I dare to take up the torch of humanity against this sublime misanthrope.” Translated by Aviva Cashmira Kakar from Voltaire, Œuvres complètes, vol. 22, (Paris: Garnier), 27–61.
