There once was in man a true happiness, of which all that
now remains is the empty print and trace. This he tries
in vain to fill with everything around him, seeking in
things that are not there the help he cannot find in those
that are, though none can help, because the infinite abyss
can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object;
in other words, by God himself. He only is our true good,
and since we have forsaken him, it is a strange thing that
there is nothing in nature which has not been serviceable
in taking His place; the stars, the heavens, earth, the
elements, plants, cabbages, leeks, animals, insects, calves,
serpents, fever, pestilence, war, famine, vices, adultery,
incest. And since man has lost the true good, everything
can appear equally good to him, even his own
destruction, though so opposed to God, to reason,
and to the whole course of nature.

~Blaise Pascal