From Pascal’s Pensées – 23 in any Lafuma edition.
Vanité des sciences.
La science des choses extérieures ne me consolera pas de l’ignorance de la morale au temps d’affliction, mais la science des mœurs me consolera toujours de l’ignorance des sciences extérieures
The vanity of the sciences.
Physical science will not console me for the ignorance of morality in the time of affliction. But the science of ethics will always console me for the ignorance of the physical sciences.
English can’t easily capture the fluidity of French science – both (fields of) science and general learning, knowledge.
Extracts 