Pensées

"The Pensées (literally, "thoughts") represented a defense of the Christian religion by Blaise Pascal, the renowned 17th century philosopher and mathematician. Pascal's own religious conversion had led him into a life of asceticism, and the Pensées were in many ways his life's work. The so-called "Pascal's Wager" is found here. The Pensées is in fact a name given posthume to his fragments, which were preparing an Apology of Christian Religion which was never completed.

"Although they appear to consist of ideas and jottings, some of which are incomplete, it is believed that Pascal had, prior to his untimely death in 1662, already planned out the order of the book and had arranged the individual scraps of paper, on which the "thoughts" were written. Those responsible for his effects, failing to recognise the basic structure of the work, handed them over to be edited, and they were published in 1669. The first English translation was made in 1803 by Thomas Chevalier, a British surgeon of French Huguenot descent. However, it was not until the beginning of the 20th century that scholars began to understand Pascal's intention. In the 1990s, decisive philological achievements were made, and the edition by Philippe Sellier of the book contain his "thoughts" in more or less the order he left them."

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pens%C3%A9es