Blaise Pascal was born at Clermont-Ferrand, in the Auvergne region of France, on this day in 1623. Educated at home by his father, he was a child prodigy and made significant contributions to the construction of mechanical calculators and the study of fluids. In mathematics he published a treatise on projection geometry (whatever that is!) at age sixteen and his work in probability theory is still important in economics today. In 1654 he had a vision upon awaking from a coma following a carriage accident, and devoted the rest of his life to philosophy and theology, the source of the quotes below:

Despite the sight of all the miseries which affect us and hold us by the throat we have an irrepressible instinct which bears us up.
I have discovered that all human evil comes from this, man’s being unable to sit still in a room.
In faith there is enough light for those who want to believe and enough shadows to blind those who don’t.
Love is a debt which inclination always pays, obligation never.
Nature has perfection, in order to show that she is the image of God; and defects, to show that she is only his image.
When we read too fast or too slowly, we understand nothing.
– All from Blaise Pascal, 1623 – 1662