Pascal's Pensées: Week 14, We Want to Live an Imaginary Life in the Eyes of Others

806.

We are not satisfied with the life we have in ourselves and our own being. We want to lead an imaginary life in the eyes of others, and so we try to make an impression. We strive constantly to embellish and preserve our imaginary being, and neglect our real one. And if we are calm, or generous, or loyal, we are anxious to have it known so that we can attach these virtues to our other existence; we prefer to detach them from our real self so as to unite them with the other. We would cheerfully be cowards if that would acquire us a reputation for bravery.

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Again, this is one of those pensées where Pascal is a prophet for the modern world, steeped as it is in social media. We embellish our imaginary being online while neglecting our real one. And when we display any virtue we become "anxious to have it known." Pascal didn't have the term "virtue signaling" in his day, but he was describing it.