The greatness and the wretchedness of men are so evident that the true religion must necessarily teach us both that there is in man some great source of greatness, and a great source of wretchedness. It must then give us an explanation of these astonishing contradictions. In order to make man happy, it must prove to him that there is a God, and we ought to love Him, that our true happiness is to be in Him, and our sole evil to be separated from Him.

Blaise Pascal (1623 – 1662)