shelter and food is not freely provided for the majority and a non-insignificant proportion of people are managing I'd say.

Yes, it's hyperbole, it literally will not get rid of all the problems but the ethos of the view is being conscious of your needs and your actions and you only truly get that by having the space to think. As opposed to just go go go and not taking a step back and implicitly treating your mind as a hostile place you need distraction from.

I'll throw in another quote that sits nicely with the Pascal quote, from Ursula Le Guin:

> Happiness is based on a just discrimination of what is necessary, what is neither necessary nor destructive, and what is destructive

just discrimination can only come from being comfortable to be with your thoughts, which can, but is not limited to, happen in a quiet room

I think where we are not seeing eye-to-eye is our interpretation of his words. I don't take them to be hyperbole, given that he died practicing what he preached. He was an extreme ascetic who overcame his biological desires, including the very desire to survive. In one sense, that kind of mastery is an impressive feat. But I don't think that kind of mastery is beneficial to humanity or that people should strive to achieve the suppression of all their desires, including their will to survive.

The second quote does not comport with Pascal, because Pascal was not advocating for a path that led to internal happiness, but rather the abandonment of the desire for happiness altogether. He believed that suffering on Earth was the purpose of being Christian and would lead to salvation through God.