Pensées

What it is

Notes for an unfinished defence of Christianity, found after the mathematician's early death: the wretchedness and greatness of humanity, the hiddenness of God, the wager, and the heart's reasons that reason does not know.

Why it lasted

Apologetics conducted as psychology rather than proof, and the most quoted Christian book of the modern era among people who read no other.

Scripture it works from

Where to read it

This work is in the public domain and can be read in full, free, at the archives below. The Library catalogues it; it does not host the text.

• Christian Classics Ethereal Library
• Project Gutenberg
• Internet Archive

These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.