So that's why they call it Pascal's Triangle

I mentioned in a recent comment that I'd bought The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins, a collection of Icelandic sagas, and a selection from Pascal's Pensées. I also said I'd try to find a sentiment suitable to crime fiction in the last of the three.

I have found such a sentiment, and not only is it suitable to crime fiction, but it's the plot of a hundred hard-boiled, even noir stories:

"How tiresome it is to give up pursuits to which we have become attached. A man enjoying a happy home-life has only to see a woman who attracts him, or spend five or six pleasant days gambling, and he will be very sorry to go back to what he was doing before. It happens every day."

(Here's a discussion of another volume in Penguin's Great Ideas series.)

© Peter Rozovsky 2010