From reed to roulette

In 1669, French mathematician and philosopher, Blaise Pascal, wrote the following:

Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature; but he is a thinking reed. The entire universe need not arm itself to crush him. A vapour, a drop of water suffices to kill him. But, if the universe were to crush him, man would still be more noble than that which killed him, because he knows that he dies and the advantage which the universe has over him; the universe knows nothing of this. All our dignity consists, then, in thought. By it we must elevate ourselves, and not by space and time which we cannot fill. Let us endeavour, then, to think well; this is the principle of morality.

 

I was puzzled by the "reed" in question after coming across the first part of this quote in a comment by Mr. H, the Boss.

"Man is but a reed" (in Japanese, 「人間は考える葦である。」)!?  I initially began questioning my understanding of the Japanese language.  After a quick search on the Internet for the relationship between "Pascal" and "reed", I soon realized (without much satisfaction) that, in this case at least, it wasn't my language skills, but my knowledge that was lacking...

I also discovered that Pascal had attempted to invent a "perpetual motion machine", which is often given as a prime example of an invention that defies the laws of nature (and thus considered unpatentable under US and Japanese law, for example).  In doing this, however, it seems that he did at least succeed in developing a rudimentary roulette wheel!