You see, if the height of the mercury [barometer] column is less on the top of a mountain than at the foot of it (as I have many reasons for believing, although everyone who has so far written about it is of the contrary opinion), it follows that the weight of the air must be the sole cause of the phenomenon, and not that abhorrence of a vacuum, since it is obvious that at the foot of the mountain there is more air to have weight than at the summit, and we cannot possibly say that the air at the foot of the mountain has a greater aversion to empty space than at the top.
Blaise PascalThere is enough light for those who only desire to see, and enough obscurity for those who have a contrary disposition
Blaise PascalThe multitude which is not brought to act as a unity, is confusion. That unity which has not its origin in the multitude is tyranny.
Blaise Pascal