He was a mathematician of the first order. Pascal helped create two major new areas of research. He wrote a significant treatise on the subject of projective geometry at the age of sixteen and corresponded with Pierre de Fermat from 1654 on probability theory, strongly influencing the development of modern economics and social science.
Following a mystical experience in late 1654, he left mathematics and physics and devoted himself to reflection and writing about philosophy and theology. His two most famous works date from this period: the Lettres provinciales and the Pensées. However, he had suffered from ill-health throughout his life and his new interests were ended by his early death two months after his 39th birthday.
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Most Influential person of the 1900s.
"Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds" — Albert Einstein
"Those who do not remember their past are condemned to repeat their mistakes" — George Santayana
"There is only one good, which is knowledge, and one evil, which is ignorance" — Plato
"I know nothing except the fact of my ignorance" — Socrates
"He who has overcome his fears will truly be free" — Aristotle
"Give me a place to stand, and I shall move the world" — Archimedes
"Saints should always be judged guilty until they are proved innocent, but the tests that have to be applied to them are not, of course, the same in all cases" — George Orwell
"Truth is ever to be found in the simplicity, and not in the multiplicity and confusion of things" — Isaac Newton
"An eye for an eye will only make the whole world blind" — Gandhi
