Pascal I

Caesar was too old, it seems to me, to go off and amuse himself conquering the world. Such a pastime was all right for Augustus and Alexander; they were young men, not easily held in check, but Caesar ought to have been more mature (II.49).

Description of man. Dependence, desire for independence, needs (IV.78).

I have put up two completely unrelated passages. Concerning the first: I found this passage extremely funny, and while this surely outs me as a nerd, I also wonder if Pascal was trying to be somewhat amusing. This is a question that I often ask the PLS thinkers, and this was the occasion that I found that Pascal was making a humorous attempt. Was he? As for the second passage: Is this truly the state of man? And if so, how does the compare to the view that Hobbes puts forth, in that all men desire to be peaceful, so that all men desire to join in community? These two viewpoints see to be opposed to each other. Are they? What does this do to ones view of Hobbes and to ones view of Pascal?